Zoysia

Missouri’s Bottle Rockets continue their work as one of America’s most songful bar bands on Zoysia. Eight releases into their career, Brian Henneman and fellows put their Neil Young-inspired rock to use on a slightly less biting, Midwest-based version of what the Drive-By Truckers do. Not to say that there’s no snarl here. “I Quit” warns that even a newly minted non-drinker shouldn’t be toyed with, while “Happy Anniversary” puts a classic country spin on the long-playing misery that friendship with an ex-lover can veil. The rowdy, sexy “Mountain to Climb” and the post-split-up “Better Than Broken” are catchy enough to qualify as hit singles – if the Rockets were the sort of outfit that scored them these days. A couple of message songs fail to pierce their targets, but the title track makes up for them. It pooh-poohs red state/blue state divisions by bringing the talk down to Henneman and his next-door neighbor, who disagree politically but “get along fine.”