Ganging Up on the Sun
Together for over a decade, Guster's new album is their fifth and it shows them having gained a certain breadth in their middle age (that's middle age in band years). Recorded in Nashville, they're now expanded to a quartet with multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia as a fulltime member adding a range of  mature sounds and textures (everything from lap steel guitar, banjo and dulcimer to trumpet). They've fashioned a work that's radio friendly without being cloy, largely because of the subtle unpredictability of the arrangements and the underlying songs. They move with ease from the dreamily hypnotic "Satellite" to the slashing guitars of "The New Underground." They're equally at home with high volume (the thunderous "the Beginning of the End") and low ("Empire State"). Ryan Miller's confident vocals lend an everyman friendliness to the set as a whole.--David Greenberger