Backyard Tire Fire - Bar Room Semantics (CD)

All Music Guide

The first studio album by Illinois Americana trio Backyard Tire Fire (following 2003's Live at the Georgia Theatre), Bar Room Semantics is a perfectlytitled album of vignettes about folks whose lives revolve around the neighborhood watering hole. Singersongwriter Ed Anderson doesn't oversentimentalize his subjects in songs like "The Daze," a catchy janglerocker that coolly documents the rise and fall of a young rock and roll band, or the bluesy character study of aimlessness "31st Fall." Although the songs are built on a standard guitarbassdrums lineup, Anderson inserts vintage synths, pedal steel and other interesting sounds to keep the album from feeling too samey. Lowkey but heartfelt, Bar Room Semantics is a refreshing throwback to the more earnest end of the postR.E.M. '80s indie rock scene.

- Stewart Mason, All Music Guide