Fishbone: Presents The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx

You can call it willful unpredictability or iconoclasm, but someone's been giving Fishbone bad career advice. How else to explain 1993's Give A Monkey A Brain And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe, a turgid slab of boring metal that muted the spastic, horn-fueled soul for which the L.A. band had become semi-famous The album was bad enough to cancel out the goodwill brought about by that year's high-profile Lollapalooza appearances, and its follow-up (the wildly uneven Chim Chim's Badass Revenge) wasn't a whole lot better. But, for the first time since 1991's frequently brilliant The Reality Of My Surroundings, the band has again made a record that deserves to exist in the same world as its stunning live performances. That's not to say it often tries to replicate the sweat-flinging speed and energy (it's got to be the most subdued album in the group's 20-year history), but The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx does work well as a whole. You can tell Fishbone is pulling out every conceivable commercial stop by the time you get to "Everybody Is A Star," a smooth and ingratiating Sly & The Family Stone cover that rotates big-name vocal guests (George Clinton, Rick James, Perry Farrell, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani) before whipping itself into a crowd-pleasing rave-up two-thirds of the way through. Nuttwerx's remainder is, for the most part, surprisingly understated, bringing in additional guests (Flea, Donny Osmond, H.R.) for a batch of songs that dwell on old-school soul ("Shakey Ground"), ska rhythms (the refreshingly celebratory "Where'd You Get Those Pants"), and hints of reggae ("One Planet People"). Fans looking for a return to the careening, stop-on-a-dime showmanship of Truth And Soul won't find much of it here—though "It All Kept Startin' Over Again" and especially "Karma Tsunami" pick up the pace near the end—but The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx at least finds Fishbone trying, jumpstarting its career with a welcome dose of long-dormant creative vitality.