Since the '80s, Soul Asylum have been a group known for their raucous but emphatic combination of punk energy, guitar-fueled firepower, and songs that range from aggressive to heartfelt. All of these things are present in spades on the Minneapolis band's gloriously, joyously loose 13th studio album, Slowly But Shirley.

For Slowly But Shirley, it also helped that Soul Asylum turned to a familiar name for production: Steve Jordan, who had also produced the band's 1990 effort And the Horse They Rode In On. Back when they first worked together, the members of Soul Asylum were still figuring out how best to capture their sound in the studio-and Jordan's approach of having the band play live together in one room was ideal. "He taught us a language of players playing music in the studio," Pirner says. "Which we were not at the time. We still didn't really understand what you were supposed to do in what order." Decades later, both parties are in different places. Jordan is currently the drummer for the Rolling Stones, and Soul Asylum remains one of the most inspiring and hardworking bands in the rock scene, having broken through commercially with the double-platinum 1992 album Grave Dancers Union.[info sheet from distr.]