GOODBYE MELODY MOUNTAIN

Goodbye Melody Mountain finds the Samuel Jackson Five offering business as usual; of course, for them business as usual is very good business indeed. Anyone hoping for a radical departure from the precedent set by their previous albums, or even a substantial evolution of their sound, might be a little disappointed with this one, but those who were already sold on albums such as Easily Misunderstood will find the band continuing to derive fresh-sounding compositions from their well-honed post-rock blueprint. It gains few points for originality but makes up for it with polish and confidence, so I'd say it's about three and a half stars bleeding into four stars.