This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
I thought the last Bottle Rockets album — 2001’s essential tribute Doug Sahm disc Songs of Sahm — was literally the last Bottle Rockets album. And I wasn’t alone.
After the roadhouse rockers got into a very public fistfight minutes after a SXSW daytime set a while back, it was rumoured they were toast. Well, apparently those rumours were Twainly exaggerated. Three of the four key members — I guess we know who was on the losing end of the scrap — have reunited to issue their seventh disc Blue Sky. And a plucky seventh it is, full of twangy licks, bouncy grooves, spry melodies and lighthearted roots-pop gems worthy of John Hiatt in his prime. Lucky Break is an ode to workman’s comp, Man Of Constant Anxiety pays tribute to Johnny Rivers and Pretty Little Angie is a kissing cousin to Sahm’s She’s About A Mover. Granted, the disc is a bit frontloaded — and a bit mellower than some of their raucous earlier work. But on the whole, Blue Sky is a disc worth fighting for.
