This is the blue-collar record of the year. The Bottle Rockets have really always been a blue-collar band. They have sung about the glory of sports, the bliss of Sundays and the torture of going to work. “South Broadway Athletic Club” finds them finding bliss in loving your dog and noticing that Monday comes around far more often than the roughly 15% of the days it is supposed to.

On “Dog” you’ll find Brian Henneman slinging words together in a cheeky way about loving his dog and not caring if you love it. Sure this approach is hammy but it fits in the blue-collar way in the grand scheme of the songs. “Monday (Everytime I Turn Around)” is the rocking opener that any 40 or more hour a week worker can relate to and it is written in the “Bottle Rockets style” that we have become accustomed to over the last couple decades. “Big Fat Nothin'” is another workingman’s anthem that concentrates on the glory of just sitting on your ass. As if the point wasn’t already made, “Building Chryslers” is ode to having to earn a living but this time the guitar squeals and finds more crunch than some of the more country sounding songs. They do stretch beyond that topic on the rocker “I Don’t Wanna Know” and backwoods love song “Smile” that is shockingly smooth and sweet with its acoustic strums.

The Bottle Rockets know who is buying their records and they are providing a soundtrack for them (us.) After all, we need a tune to sing in our head while we are building Chryslers and thinking about how it’s Monday every time we turn around.

Key Tracks: “Monday (Everytime I Turn Around)” “Building Chryslers” “Smile”