Music Evaluation: A soundtrack for the season from rock band that features former R.E.M. members

“Grand Salami Time!” by Baseball Project (Omnivore Recordings)

Baseball’s anthem “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was crafted by two Tin Pan Alley songwriters who had by no means attended a sport. By distinction, the tunes on “Grand Salami Time!” come from a band with intensive data of the game.

The album is the fourth by the Baseball Project, and the group – Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon, and former R.E.M. members Peter Buck and Mike Mills – mines nostalgia and esoterica to search out recent material for 16 songs.

We’re speaking inside baseball: A tribute to pitcher Jim Bouton makes a veiled reference to his profession file of 64-64. The track “New Oh in Town” salutes Japanese heroes previous and current. “Screwball” cleverly merges two topics because it recollects gamers who pitched greater than a century in the past.

Most subjects are paired with storage rock that offers Buck an opportunity to serve up some pleasant guitar squall. Also contributing is co-producer Mitch Easter, who labored on R.E.M.’s early albums.

The band finds room for such modern clatter as launch angle, exit velocity and WHIP, however the most effective songs contain a unique sort of analytics. The bluesy “Erasable Man” laments the colour line, whereas the acoustic people of “That’s Living” contemplates life’s quick season.