finger eleven / albums

Finger Eleven’s sequel to 2007’s Juno Award-winning Them vs. You vs. Me sees the onetime Rainbow Butt Monkeys embracing their slow slide toward respectable middle age. All lingering elements of rebellion, noise, and aggression have been banished; their funk -- when it surfaces -- is not a breakneck freakout but digs into an actual groove (“Living in a Dream” almost yo-yos to a disco beat); and they’re not afraid to get full-out hooky and poppy, as they do on the rather excellent “Stone Soul.” The aforementioned two cuts are Finger Eleven at their extreme ends of the spectrum. Most of the time they’re hugging the middle, turning out big anthems that are confident and catchy modern rock, the work of a band whose members have found their comfort zone and are happy to inhabit it fully. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi