**** Al Anderson

PAY BEFORE YOU PUMP

(Imprint)

The jury's still out on whether NRBQ will fully recover from the departure of singer/guitarist "Big Al" Anderson, who left the band three years ago and proceeded to make big money as a songwriter in Nashville. But Anderson's first post-'Q release is the album that his old band or John Hiatt or Dave Alvin or Nick Lowe should have made this year. Unlike most of those folks, Anderson doesn't feel obliged to get all quiet and sensitive just because he's hitting middle age. The loudest tracks here rock out in a full-blooded Southern style that's as close to the Black Crowes as to the 'Q. Old fans will probably latch onto the mid-tempo charmer "Listen to Your Heart" and the Sun Records homage "It Came from the South," which would fit well in NRBQ's repertoire. More surprising are the Cajun-influenced "After the Mardi Gras" and "Change Is Gonna Do Me Good," the kind of ballad that Robbie Robertson used to excel at -- not to mention the punkish "Hiss on U," with the classic couplet "Elvis sucks, Beatles too/Hank and Frank, and so do you." Anderson's brand of roots rock is more rockin' than slavishly rootsy; the sound of Elvis Costello clearly having fun for the first time in years (he shouts back-up on "Bang Bang Bang") just about says it all.

-- Brett Milano