The Grand Theatre, Volume Two by Old 97's

The Grand Theatre, Volume Two, the ninth album from Dallas's Old 97's, came out on New West on July 5, 2011, finishing the job The Grand Theatre, Volume One had started. By then the band that helped blaze the alt-country trail in the '90s had spent years flirting with power pop, and this set splits the difference, landing on what singer and chief songwriter Rhett Miller likes to call loud folk.

It's a lean record, most of its songs well under four minutes, running from the opener "Brown Haired Daughter" through "I'm a Trainwreck" and the tiny "Marquita" to the closing "You Call It Rain". "Perfume", third in line, is the one that has found its way onto the countdowns. Most Messed Up came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.