The Wallflower's Revenge

Anyone who saw the Wallflowers perform live in the early '90s surely could tell the band had a good shot at making it big. With their folk-rock tunes led by the vocals of Jakob Dylan and Rami Jaffee's swelling Hammond organ, they sounded like nothing so much as the Band playing with Jakob's dad, Bob. The songs on their self-titled debut weren't quite there, however, so the Wallflowers breakout was deferred until 1996, when they released Bringing Down the Horse. Still, there are some fine moments on The Wallflowers, including "Shy of the Moon," the rocking "Ashes to Ashes," and the rambling "Sidewalk Annie."

Rock ‘n’ roll is often hard to define, or even to find, in these fractured musical times. But to paraphrase an old saying, you know it when you hear it. And you always hear it with The Wallflowers. For the past 30 years, the Jakob Dylan-led act has stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and purposeful bands – a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse as well as more recent and exploratory fare like 2012’s Glad All Over. But while it’s been nine long years since we’ve heard from the group with whom he first made his mark, The Wallflowers are silent no more.

The Wallflowers' long-awaited third album, Breach, was a strong, confident record that demonstrated clear growth from Jakob Dylan as a songwriter and The Wallflowers as a band. Thing is, everybody ignored it. Critics wrote it off and the large audience Bringing Down the Horse attracted shunned it, leaving the band in an awkward position of having to prove themselves yet again with their fourth album, Red Letter Days. The first striking thing about the album is that its production is a clear reaction to the failure of Breach. Glistening where its predecessor had a semblance of grit, this is a polished mainstream rock record, designed to win back listeners who loved the band by hearing "One Headlight" on the radio repeatedly. Dylan has adjusted his songwriting slightly, too, playing up the hooks and the melodies, which is hardly selling out. Even so, it's hard not to wish that the album had a bit more of the quirks and muscle that gave Breach its backbone.