August 16, 2008

If we're a little surprised to see Extreme back together for the first time in 13 years (eat your heart out, "Bands Reunited"), imagine how pleasing it is to hear the Boston quartet sounding even sharper and more ambitious than it did in the early '90s. If the group was eclipsed back then by such acoustic hits as "Hole Hearted" and "More Than Words," it's out to rock, and hard, on "Saudades de Rock." The album opens with a blast of vocal harmonies on vintage power rocker "Star," and the octane stays high on stomping tracks like "Comfortably Dumb," "Last Hour," "Flower Man" and the Led Zeppelin-styled "Sunrise," while Extreme gets the funk out for the likes of "Slide" and "King of the Ladies" and delves into a bit of rockabilly on "Take Us Alive."—Gary Graff

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