Sound of Lies by The Jayhawks

Sound of Lies, the Jayhawks' fifth album, came out on American Recordings in 1997, and it's the sound of a band rebuilding from the ground up. Tomorrow the Green Grass had won raves in 1995 but sold poorly, and the tour behind it left them close to a million dollars in the hole. Burned out, co-founder Mark Olson walked away to make music with his wife, Victoria Williams, leaving Gary Louris to write and lead on his own.

Louris, bassist Marc Perlman and keyboardist Karen Grotberg nearly started over as Six Green Olives before hanging on to the name, then brought in guitarist Kraig Johnson of Golden Smog, multi-instrumentalist Jessy Greene from the Geraldine Fibbers and drummer Tim O'Reagan. With Brian Paulson producing, they steer away from the alt-country the Twin Cities band had built its name on, toward something moodier and more restless. "Big Star" and "The Man Who Loved Life" are the songs the countdowns remember.

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