David Lowery doesn’t make bad records. The guy has fronted Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker and had a solo album and you can’t pick out one record from any of those releases that isn’t good. Camper Van Beethoven’s 7th album Las Costa Perdida another winner.

The record is surprisingly loose for such a group of experienced musicians. It sounds like the band is having fun which isn’t always the case for a band that has been around for 25-30 years. “Come Down The Coast” leads off the album bringing to mind the sound from Lowery’s recent solo record. Then “Too High For The Love-In” changes pace so often it’s like watching a lava lamp in a dark room from a bean-bag chair. “Peaches In The Summertime” finds the band dialing up the pace with a killer Victor Krummenacher funk-bass groove before shifting into a violin-heavy breakdown. “Northern California Girls” rolls out at over 7 minutes long but stays fresh throughout and proves to be one of the highlights of La Costa Perdida.

Overall the albums finds the CVB a little less Greg Lisher guitar-heavy than their last effort, New Roman Times, and dialing up Jonathan Segel’s violin. This would normally be a questionable thing but CVB uses violin in their music better than any other band that out there; it sounds so natural that it is hard to envision listening to the record without it. This album, released 28 years after their first, finds the rockers who are all around the half century mark having more fun than most bands who are 20 years old.

Key Tracks: “Too High For The Love-In” “Northern California Girls” “Peaches In The Summertime”