Zoysia

iTunes Review

Missouri’s Bottle Rockets continue their work as one of America’s most songful bar bands on Zoysia. Eight releases into their career, Brian Henneman and fellows put their Neil Young-inspired rock to use on a slightly less biting, Midwest-based version of what the Drive-By Truckers do. Not to say that there’s no snarl here. “I Quit” warns that even a newly minted non-drinker shouldn’t be toyed with, while “Happy Anniversary” puts a classic country spin on the long-playing misery that friendship with an ex-lover can veil. The rowdy, sexy “Mountain to Climb” and the post-split-up “Better Than Broken” are catchy enough to qualify as hit singles – if the Rockets were the sort of outfit that scored them these days. A couple of message songs fail to pierce their targets, but the title track makes up for them. It pooh-poohs red state/blue state divisions by bringing the talk down to Henneman and his next-door neighbor, who disagree politically but “get along fine.”