Apparently taking their name from the first half of Buffalo Springfield and the drummer's first name, Buffalo Tom seemed to be regarded in their early years as a sort of discount shop Dinosaur Jr, whose leader, J. Mascis, produced their first album. But I preferred the influencees to the influencer and have nearly all their work in one format or another.
The release of a new album Jump Rope at the end of May this year passed me by until a few months later, by which time I had also missed seeing them on tour - they remain high on my list of bands I like to see live but haven't. Otherwise this one would be higher in the charts.
There hasn't been much in the way of stylistic evolution by Buffalo Tom, over the decades. Their new album sounds remarkably like their first one, released in 1988. But they can always be depended on to deliver grungy but melodic songs combined with literate, well constructed, if often opaque lyrics written by their lead singer and guitarist Bill Janovitz. I read somewhere that he has a master's degree in English literature so perhaps that explains it.
I only started listening to this one in mid-October so perhaps Autumn Letter was destined to be my favourite song on the album. The words conjure up an autumnal feeling and indeed seasons seem to be a sub-theme of this album with the next but one track Come Closer starting with the words 'Bleak, midwinter sun'.
Autumn has always been my favourite season and the closing lines
Panic shouts out (panic shouts out)
Pity drowns out (pity drowns out)
But mercy wins out in the end
seem to offer a note of hope rather than fear or regret.
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