SOUL ASYLUM
Local: Pop/Rock
SOULASYLUM, "Candy from a Stranger"
(Columbia)
For the second version of their third album for Columbia, the guys in
SoulAsylum turned to producer Chris Kimsey, best known for his work with
the Rolling Stones. (An album with producer Matt Hyde, who'd worked with
Jane's Addiction, was abandoned.) The results are closer to the Beatles
than the Stones. SoulAsylum has fashioned a consistent, polished
collection of muscular pop, with lovely layers of vocal harmonies and
gorgeous guitar textures, that could fit in on the radio if there's ever
a vacancy between Fastball and Matchbox 20. Singer-songwriter Dave
Pirner leans less on clever and rhyming lyrics than in the recent past.
This is a direction in which this long-lived Minneapolis band seemed
headed on 1995's million-selling "Let Your Dim Light Shine" (produced by
grunge-master Butch Vig). What's missing this time is an edginess and
impertinence that made Pirner a renegade among the punks-gone-pop pack.
Oddly enough, the prettiest song, the acoustic guitar-driven "The Game,"
is perhaps the most disquieting as Pirner debates the thrill vs. guilt
of fooling around with a friend's wife. On the whole, "Candy from a
Stranger" (in stores Tuesday) has more to do with pop craft than rock
'n' roll heart. It's too sweet and not strange enough. 5319
-- Jon Bream, Star Tribune staff writer