"Ready or not, here we come."
So proclaims alt−rock band Guster on the final track of their new album, "Easy Wonderful." Their sixth studio release dropped on Oct. 5 after the band took a four−year hiatus from releasing music. They have been slowly teasing their new songs one by one via live performances and online videos, so it's no exaggeration to say Guster's 12−song set has been a long time coming.
Guster, which may be the most successful musical act ever to graduate from Tufts, can count three of its four members as alumni. Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel all graduated with the Class of 1995. Along the way, they picked up fellow member Joe Pisapia, but he recently left the band to tour with k.d. lang.
The group remains in a transitional phase right now, having just welcomed Luke Reynolds into the fold. Reynolds will be touring with the band as they promote their new album.
Guster's long absence from the recording world can be easily explained: babies. All three core members of the group became fathers over the past four years, so they chose to take time off from recording to start their families. The new songs represent a more mature band and reflect the life experiences that they all have accumulated.
"Easy Wonderful" is both classic and adventurous Guster. The inaugural track, "Architects & Engineers," flashes us back to Guster's previous studio effort, "Ganging Up on the Sun" (2006). The song is familiar and sets the tone for the following tracks, reminding fans of what they love about the band and also opening their minds to the ever−broadening horizons of Guster's repertoire. "This Could All Be Yours," no doubt a dedication to the band members' children, broaches the subject of their personal lives while keeping true to the essence of their style.
The middle of the album spans a broad range of styles, titles, lyrics and messages. Miller's soulful voice carries throughout the tracks, crooning about subjects varying from biblical characters ("Stay with Me Jesus," "Jesus and Mary") to Roman mythology ("Hercules") and nautical themes ("On the Ocean" and the bonus track "Lost At Sea").
The pinnacle of the album is the final track, and it is a true accomplishment for the band. "Do What You Want" is the most abstract song on the album, shying away from what Guster has in the past proven to be their norm and exploring a completely different realm of music, echoing contemporaries such as The Killers or Spoon.
The song starts out with a synthesized beat, something completely new for a band that has previously been compared to acts like Dave Matthews Band and Dispatch. Fast−paced lyrics and a completely out−of−character guitar solo at the end make "Do What You Want" a unique entity among Guster's recordings, perhaps helping pave the way toward the changing and evolving face of the band.
A distinctive aspect of this album's release is its presence in the online community. Teasers of songs and music videos appeared on Twitter and Facebook and via e−mails from the band for months prior to the album's release. And the Wall Street Journal's website has the entire album available for free streaming.
The band is also releasing 12 music videos for "Easy Wonderful," one for each song. The videos are artistic interpretations — only one features the band members themselves — and each has a different director, making them distinctive and creative. More than half of the videos have been released online and are available on Guster's Vimeo.com page.
The chorus of "Do What You Want" claims, "No one's gonna care if we disappear." Judging by the band's ability to continually please loyal fans, the opposite is true. Guster has burst back onto the music scene with an album that both stays true to the image they have projected over the past 20 years and simultaneously explores new realms of music.
If these broadened horizons are any indication of albums to come, then Guster is certainly helping to secure its legacy for posterity in the music world.
