Last time around, way back in 2008,
Blues Traveler decided to go all in on AAA pop on
North Hollywood Shootout -- a move that didn't result in the group burning up the charts, but it did provide a launching pad for 2012's pop-tastic
Suzie Cracks the Whip. Not quite as mellow as
North Hollywood Shootout,
Suzie Cracks the Whip is constructed out of songs with pointed pop hooks, riffs, and melodies that recall their mid-'90s heyday without explicitly rewriting "Run Around." Best of this batch is the urgent "Cover Me," a song powered by an organ riff that could be called garagey if it were slightly greasier, but there is a welcome lightness and a touch of bluesy grit to a lot of this material: "Saving Grace" grooves on a widescreen riff and "Devil in the Details" flirts with funk, as does "Things Are Looking Up." That song is derailed by a singsong chorus, a trademark flaw of
Popper's that also wounds "Big City Girls," an otherwise effervescent piece of roots-pop, but such minor irritations are offset by
Blues Traveler's easy touch with reggae on "All Things Are Possible" and a strong duet with
Crystal Bowersox on "I Don't Wanna Go." Such mild stylistic excursions add variety on this chipper, tuneful album, but that bright melodicism is the very thing that makes
Suzie Cracks the Whip the most appealing
Blues Traveler album in many a moon. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine