In their ongoing effort to make a record with every cool musician on earth, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey were appearing at a music festival in Norway when they met Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Strømstad, half of the celebrated Norwegian indie pop band I Was a King. Before long, the four were comparing notes on songs and trading ideas back and forth, and the result was the 2017 EP Sun Station, which they credited to the No Ones. They liked the finished product well enough to try it again, and after spending five days together in a recording studio, the result is 2020's The Great Lost No Ones Album. Since McCaughey wrote the lyrics and sings most of the leads, much of the time this sounds a lot like an album from his ad hoc group the Minus 5, but it's a Minus 5 album with an abundance of tough, buzzy guitar figures and more emphatic tempos than one might usually expect. Mathisen's drumming is more aggressive and a bit splashier than Buck and McCaughey's usual collaborators, and Strømstad is an excellent guitar foil for Buck, with bursts of fuzz and clouds of feedback adding texture to the expected jangle, especially on "(Going Back To) Stockholm Syndrome," which sounds like the midpoint between Frosting on the Beater-era Posies and Dinosaur Jr. Melodically, The Great Lost No Ones Album isn't a dramatic departure from what McCaughey and Buck usually do with the Minus 5, though all four bandmates co-wrote the music, and the lyrics display McCaughey's typical darkly shaded wit, especially on "Straight into the Bridge" and "Sweet Home Mississippi," though "Cinnamon Roll Hair" is a heartfelt love letter to the late Carrie Fisher. Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey could seemingly make a good album in a couple of days between naps, but Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Strømstad bring enough different flavors to the formula to make The Great Lost No Ones Album stand out from their strong body of work, and anyone who loves pop hooks and strong guitars should give this a listen.
© Mark Deming /TiVo