Bar-None

The last time The Feelies released an album of new material, I was a junior in high school and was unfortunately totally oblivious to the existence of this celebrated new wave outfit from Haledon, New Jersey.

What a difference a couple of decades of growth and education will do for a man, because now I sit here in eager anticipation to dig into their long-awaited fifth studio album, having appropriately absorbed the greatness of this group through the incessant listening of the 2009 issues of their first two albums, 1980’s essential Crazy Rhythms and its 1986 follow-up _The Good Earth_¬ (not to mention 1988’s Only Life and 1991’s Time for a Witness ). Additionally, I was also lucky enough to have caught a night of their Fourth of July residency at their old Hoboken haunt Maxwell’s during the band’s 2008 reunion tour.

Though recorded at Water Music in Hoboken, the 13 new songs used for Here Before were written by the songwriting team of Feelies founders Bill Million and Glenn Mercer at Mercer’s NJ home before entering the studio for the band’s classic lineup, rounded out by bassist Brenda Sauter-Barnes, drummer Stanley Demeski and percussionist Dave Weckerman, to work their magic.

“Is it too late to do it again, or should we wait another ten” sings Mercer on the album’s opening track “Nobody Knows”, acknowledging the two decades that have passed between records. And when you get further into the creative thick of this ten-track set, you will wonder at the Steely Dan-like precision by which The Feelies pick up exactly where they left off on Witness, dutifully evident within the herky jerky jangle of songs like “Again Today” and “Later On.”

Here Before is a triumphant return to acetate from one of the college radio era’s most celebrated acts.