Perhaps the hardest-working band in the Lone Star State, this Denton, Texas, four-piece"s annual 250-plus live show agenda has molded them tighter than a No. 6 train in Manhattan rush hour. On Slobberbone"s third album, songwriter Brent Best still prays to a homespun punk-rock confessional with both ears equally entrenched in Texas twang, his most intimate stories parlayed into a country-tinged compound of blustery barn-burners and back-porch ballads. The band has matured, slamming the door on their ever-charming sloppiness while turning to pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, even horns. The 12-string and fiddle symmetry of "Meltdown" slams into "Placemat Blues," which borrows a riff from the Replacements" rocker, "I.O.U." (from Pleased to Meet Me, recorded at the same Ardent Studios in Memphis). But the rest of the way, Slobberbone keeps it more refined ("Josephine"), even elegant at times ("Magnetic Heaven"), without ever losing that Southern boy sense of humor ("Gimme Back My Dog," "Pinball Song"). --Scott Holter