Rock & roll lifers that they are, knows the implications of a self-titled album, how any record bearing an eponymous name is bound to be seen as a reintroduction. That's why they puncture with a parenthetical aside, a slyly ironic joke that deflates the notion that is returning to its roots while signaling that the band is finally lightening up again, a notion reinforced by the camel birthday party on the cover. And, to be fair, "reintroduction" is indeed too strong a term for a band that never went away, they merely spent a decade-and-a-half on a walkabout, consuming anything that came their way, changing their tone and tenor from record to record. finds the band happily returning from the wilderness, taking stock of where they've been and consolidating all they've learned into one tight, likeable record. never veers too far into the experimental -- nor does it dabble in country-rock, a sound that's largely remained verboten in ever since their debut -- but the reverberations of the era can be heard in how builds to a shuddering, noise-filled coda, or the band's general mastery of varying degrees of light and shade. All this studio texture is not the focal point, it's the coloring on a collection of straight-ahead rock and pop songs, tunes that are generally soft, sunny, and hazy -- quite exquisitely so on the '70s pastiche and the nearly Baroque -- but also jangly and sparkly, as on or that have some measure of backbone, as on the spiky and the cool shuffle of If as a whole is considerably less ambitious than its predecessors, it compensates with its easy confidence and craft: it's the work of a band that knows their strengths and knows what they're all about, and it's ready to settle into an agreeably comfortable groove. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine