Last Good Kiss (Red Beet, 2007)

This is the 5th full-length album from Last Train Home in its 10 years of recording existence (and lately the band has been picking up the pace, releasing 3 since 2003), and it is another consistently fine collection revolving around the moody songs and emotive vocals of bandleader Eric Brace. The term "roots-rock" is an amorphous one, but with this release it remains as good as a descriptor as any of what this band's music is about, whether it's the shimmering, edge-of-melancholy sound of "Flood" or the loping, country-rock beat of "Can't Come Undone" or the hushed beauty of "Go Now."

But if that is the band's musical bedrock, as always (and maybe more so this time around) Last Train Home adds those interesting touches and flourishes - the accordion and trumpet laced through "Kissing Booth," the jazzy ambience, punctuated with a ringing chorus, of "You," the combination of a tropical vibe and some blue trumpet on the closing song, "The Color Blue" - that make it more than just another rootsy outfit. Call it "roots-plus" - call it what you like - Last Train Home continues to make music that's worth listening to.