"Jump Rope" : Buffalo Tom's 10th album

College rock evergreens' tenth album comes comfort-laden.

THOUGH THE alt-rock era was the rising tide that lifted their boat, Buffalo Tom always seemed more ma­ture, more soulful than their grungy contemporaries. Like a weathered flannel shirt, their dog­eared, big-hearted college rock has only grown warmer and more comforting with the passing years, and their tenth album — their fourth since an unhurried but welcome reunion in 2007 — maintains their canny balance of bruising melancholy and triumphal hopefulness. 

The keening Come Closer is a highlight, Bill Janovitz howling into the void, tremolo guitar sighing behind him, piano heightening the heroics, while the Stones-y country ram­ble of Little Ghostmaker again proves bassist and occasional vocalist Chris Colbourn to be their secret weapon. In truth there’s little here that wouldn’t belong on the 1992 breakthrough Let Tie Come Over, their enduring warm embrace mark­ing Buffalo Tom as a band you can grow old with.