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Like the other great album to come out of post-Katrina New Orleans, Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello’s The River in Reverse, the Radiators’ latest consists mainly of songs written before the deluge. But the long-running Crescent City band catch a definite sense of time and place on this disc, which was recorded in the studio during the first post-hurricane Mardi Gras. Many of the lyrics sound too appropriate to be accidental, especially the opening “Ace in the Hole” (“When the big wind blows chilly and cold, the wise fool flies south”) and the closing “Shine Tonight” (“We’re all in the same boat, it sunk without a trace”). It also makes sense that the band sound even more New Orleans–ish than usual, adding sax on the ’50s-style jukebox rocker “Rollercoaster” and banjo on the Preservation Hall homage “Desdemona.” The overall mood is more intense than usual for these guys, notably on the Richard Thompson–esque “Don’t Pray for Me” and the sexy/swampy “Rub It In” — the first time the standout track on a Radiators disc has been a love song. Their trademark two-guitar workouts are kept tight enough to serve the songs, and the mood is muted but still celebratory. The chanted choruses that close “Shine Tonight” attest to a city — or at least a few individual souls — slowly coming back to life.
