The dB’s were never just another power-pop band. Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey always aimed high with their songwriting, delivering emotional depth along with shimmering hooks. And the band never tied itself to one sound, becoming as raw or as lush as each tune demanded. All the above still applies on the band’s reunion album — only the third by the original lineup and the first in 30 years. The album makes no attempts to turn back time, but damned it if doesn’t succeed anyway: Holsapple’s opener, “That Time Is Gone,” has a bratty Nuggets-inspired sound that undercuts the wake-up call of the lyric. Stamey follows with “Before We Were Born,” which proves that a fiftyish band can still connect just fine with wide-eyed romance. The two songwriters’ interplay works just as well when they hit deeper territory: Holsapple’s mournful, Katrina-inspired “She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore” is followed by Stamey’s heavenly title song. Those of us who wore out three copies of Repercussion will be overjoyed.
