But until now, their work has always overcome this problem through sheer quality. Push Comes to Shove and Cut the Crap, and to an even greater degree Jackyl and Relentless, were just too much fun think twice about. When Jesse James Dupree's powerful Southern voice blends with the sleazed-up sound of Les Pauls hitting Marshalls, all it takes is some decent songwriting to make listeners forget the pure ridiculousness of it all.

Unfortunately, though the guys have had eight years of downtime since Relentless, that quality isn't there on the new When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide -- and the cheesiness oozes through. In fact, it's hard not to notice that two recent Jackyl-related projects -- the rock half of Dupree's last solo album (Rev it Up and Go-Go) and Dupree's son's debut (Nigel Dupree Band's Attraction) -- did a better job of capturing the classic Jackyl spirit.

To be sure, the album has its moments. "She's Not a Drug" is catchy and energetic, even if one can't help but think that on any other Jackyl record, it wouldn't have been a single. Covering "Just Like a Negro," a funk-metal track by the interracial band Mother's Finest, might not be the most PC choice Jackyl has made, but the musical results are top-notch. "Deeper in Darkness" is an awesome mid-tempo rocker, though it's debatable whether it belongs on a new studio record (it's already available on 1996's live album Night of the Living Dead).

But the rest of the album ranges from bland to outright cringeworthy. The title track, a bluesy ballad, doesn't have the emotional pull of the band's previous work in the genre ("Down This Road Before" and "Misery Loves Company," for example). "Get Mad at It," "The Overflow of Love," "Freight Train," and "Full Throttle" are decent enough rock tracks, but that special "something" is lacking. It's not really clear why Dupree felt compelled to record an a capella take on Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz."

On the heavier cuts, the problem is often with the band's patented take on gang vocals. In the past, it worked well enough to punctuate tracks such as "Dirty Little Mind" ("Dirty!") and "Push Comes to Shove" ("Push!"), but here it shows its face too frequently, distracts from Dupree's main vocal lines, and sounds dorky and giddy instead of drunk and rowdy. It helps ruin several tracks: "Loads of Fun" (whose chorus is repetitive and obnoxious enough to begin with), "I Can't Stop," and "My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine's Ass."

Jackyl is an incredible band, both live and in the studio, and it's a shame that Dupree and Co. couldn't put together another record worthy of the group's name. Fans and non-fans alike can skip this one -- but should try to catch the band when they come through on tour nonetheless.

-- Robert VerBruggen is an associate editor at National Review. You can follow his writing at http://www.google.com/profiles/robertv4311#buzz.