Grave Dancers Union

A nice idea when you think about it, really - a soul asylum, a place of refuge or protection for the spirit.

In its own strange way the name of the band perfectly suits the material they've produced on this album. Grave Diggers Union is like a friend you can call up at 4 in the morning and complain to, the friend who says "let's get the hell out of here," right as you're about to lose your composure. It's an album that consoles and uplifts, wallows and inspires and ultimately, an album that kneads a soft spot in your heart. (Ever think about writing press releases for a living, Tara? - Ed.)

Singer David Pirner is a songwriter to be reckoned with. On 'Black Gold', the band's breakthrough single in the States and the nineties equivalent of Billy Joel's 'Allentown', Pirner uses playground territorialism as a political analogy for the Gulf War in a song about personal disillusionment and determination. The song's chorus - "Black gold in a white plight/Won't you fill up the tank let's go for a ride/I don't care about no wheelchair/I've got so much left to do with my life" - is a grungy burst of aggression in the middle of an otherwise laid back acousticy number.

Likewise, much of Grave Dancers Union makes you think that they only have driver's licenses and railroads in America, so intense is the album's concern with hopping into a car or getting on a train, 'keeping it up' and 'getting on out'. 'Runaway Train', a runaway hit in the States, is a mid-western 'Losing My Religion' about a life gone astray, with too many insightful lyrics to quote. The refrain -"Runaway train, never going back/Wrong way on a one-way track/Seems like I should be getting somewhere/Somehow I'm neither here nor there" - highlights a sense of unfulfillment not uncommon to the rest of the album.

But where Soul Asylum differ from countless banal soul searchers is in their acceptance of the fact that 'home' is a myth in spite of whatever twisted satisfaction comes with the search. On 'Homesick' Pirner oozes mockish self-pity in a slow, Pettyish drawl."Woe is me, I am so homesick," he moans, before changing tone and admitting sheepishly, "but it ain't that bad, 'cause I'm homesick for the home I've never had."

The music throughout the album is equally moody with styles ranging from bluesy, gospelly pieces like 'Get On Out' to an Aerosmith-influenced 'New World'. 'The Sun Maid' would be a lullaby were it not for the fact that lyrics like "The sun maid, she's such an old maid, she never gets laid" aren't exactly fit for dozing toddlers, and 'Without A Trace' is a jangly, offbeat lovesong.

"Standing in the sun with a popsicle/Everything is possible/With a lot of luck and a pretty face/and some time to waste," sings Pirner on the latter footstomping exercise.

The way things are going for Soul Asylum these days, he should know.

• Tara McCarthy