Consumer Guide Album

X: Hey Zeus! [Big Life/Mercury, 1993]
Stripped of the vicious tensions that made them great--between good and evil, John and Exene, Billy Zoom and Skunk Baxter--they return as the reason young bohos are afraid to grow up. This isn't folk-rock in disguise; Tony Gilkyson's hooks evoke a machine shop, not a barn raising. But they leave going 120 to a bad old black-and-white--even with their seat belts on, the kids in the back would get hurt real bad in a crash. And save hostility for the warmongers--ensconced in separate but functional marriages, John and Exene have nothing to fight about anymore. Which in the usual tragic contradiction leaves the emotion so abstract that the songs are tough to grab hold of. Only the spiteful putdowns--Exene's "Everybody," John's "Baby You Lied"--sound like old times. Not to mention new ones. B-