Soul Asylum are not the band they used to be, and that's not a judgement, that's just a fact. In the year 2020, lead vocalist and songwriter
Dave Pirner is the only member left from their original lineup, and 36 years on from their debut album (and 28 after they broke through with
Grave Dancer's Union), it's foolish to expect them to sound like they did in the era when flannel shirts and beat-up jeans were briefly fashionable rather than slobby. 2020's
Hurry Up and Wait isn't the work of a bunch of scrappy, beer-fueled upstarts the way we once loved them, and
Pirner seems perfectly comfortable with not trying to be the guy who sang "Someone to Shove." That's not to say he's taken all of his rock moves off the table, as "Got It Pretty Good" and "Hopped Up Feelin'" demonstrate, but
Hurry Up and Wait spends most of its time exploring
Pirner's more pensive and introspective side, a side that's been a growing part of
Soul Asylum's formula from
Let Your Dim Light Shine onward. So don't think of
Hurry Up and Wait as a
Soul Asylum album and instead approach it as a
Dave Pirner solo effort and it stacks up nicely next to his underappreciated 2002 album
Faces & Names. He's not as much of a howler at the age of 56, but his vocals are still committed and the melodic sense and wordplay in his songs remains strong, and his band -- Ryan Smith on guitar,
Winston Roye on bass, and
Michael Bland on drums -- can kick it up when the song asks for it and deliver more measured support on the quieter moments. And if including two songs complaining about telephones feels like
Pirner is showing his age, the honesty of "Social Butterfly" and the careful storytelling of "Dead Letter" find him handling maturity better than the average rock dude in deep middle age.
Hurry Up and Wait is the work of a musician who isn't foolish enough to ignore the passage of time, and
Soul Asylum are adapting to their new circumstances better here than on 2016's
Change of Fortune.