Album Review: Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction

Some bands seem destined to have a tough time of it, even if they manage to get an album noticed to sell enough copies to satisfy their label and win a Grammy with it. Soul Asylum could have quit long before they released their Grammy-winning single, Runaway Train, and its attendant album, 1992's Grave Dancers Union, as they'd already been dropped by one label and frontman and songwriter Dave Pirner was suffering hearing problems. They rode through that but by the turn of the millennium, they seemed to have run out of steam, taking eight years to get around to 2006's The Silver Lining, itself overshadowed by the loss of bass player Karl Mueller to cancer.

It's obviously taken six years and a new rhythm section for core members Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy to recover their mojo, but they're back with a solid collection that isn't necessarily going to reclaim the ground lost in the past decade, but also doesn't diminish the legacy. Pirner is a skilled songsmith across a variety of rock and pop styles, from the ardent sloganeering Springsteen style of opening cut, Gravity, to the classic pop piano ballad, Cruel Intentions, a strength if it's the song that matters but a weakness in a marketplace incapable of seeing music that doesn't sit in the boxes assigned. That's probably why Soul Asylum were always seen as second division players, despite the unexpected and, for the pundits, unlikely success of that 1992 single.

So here they are, 20-odd years after emerging from the grunge scene of Minneapolis that also spawned The Replacements, whose bass player Tommy Stinson they now sport, and Hüsker Dü, revitalised but perhaps too late, just as committed and passionate but probably lucky to see anyone beyond former fans caring to seek them out. Which is a shame. There are far inferior records getting far greater attention.