Aging is still something of a dirty word in rock & roll, even if the music has been around since the 1950s and many of its most esteemed figures are eligible to join AARP. Consequently, calling an album by a veteran rock band "autumnal" might sound like something short of a compliment. But 2024's
Jump Rope, the tenth studio LP from the Boston alternative rock band
Buffalo Tom, is autumnal in all the best ways, an album of great songs that are sometimes bittersweet while also celebrating the many good things life has to offer and the value of many lessons learned. These 14 songs feel and sound as crisp and satisfying as the crunch of leaves beneath your feet on an early October morning, an experience that is best appreciated by people with some living under their belts.
Jump Rope comes nearly four decades after
Buffalo Tom first formed, and the massive guitar crunch of their early albums has been swapped out for a sound that makes more room for acoustic guitar and keyboards. Their sure sense for engaging melodies, thankfully, has changed very little, and tracks like "Recipes," "The Belle of Borderline Dismay," and "Our Poverty" play like folk-rock made by people who are still firmly in touch with the rock side of that formula, while "Helmet" and "Why'd You Have to Be Like That" hit harder without feeling like the band needs to force the issue. The passion and emotional outlook that have always been at the core of
Buffalo Tom's music are clear and present on
Jump Rope, and the interplay between singer and guitarist
Bill Janovitz, bassist and singer
Chris Colbourn, and drummer
Tom Maginnis is tight and intuitive. This is truly a band, not just three guys who occasionally get together to knock out some songs, and the emotional and creative bond is audible from the first song to the last. This is music that, in the truest sense, a young band couldn't really make -- though they could perhaps play these songs, they wouldn't have the feel, the connection, and the wisdom that comes from musicians who have had the time to mature together and allow their journey to inform their craft. The band produced the album and give the performances a sound that's roomy and insistent, while fellow Boston rock lifer
David Minehan (of
the Neighborhoods and the reunited
Replacements) engineered the set and gives the audio the warmth and clarity of focus it deserves. This is the best and most satisfying album
Buffalo Tom has made since they returned to recording with 2007's
Three Easy Pieces, and if it sounds different than these men did when they were in their twenties, it sounds just like who they are, and in this context, that's a gift. ~ Mark Deming
