The Jayhawks, Rainy Day Music

You can keep your J.Lo; we’ll take the Jayhawks. Rainy Day Music, their seventh disc, pulls back from the slickness of 2000’s Smile for a sound anchored more deeply in the acoustic. It’s an evolution that sprung in part from continued lineup shifts and the impossibility of touring with a full band in the wake of 9/11’s chaotic effect on air travel, but the effect is positive nonetheless. We liked Smile quite a bit, but it’s a real pleasure to hear Gary Louris and company pushing toward a rootsier sound; that’s always helped make the joy and humanity in their music more manifest. And there’s no shortage of the Byrdsesque singable tunefulness that has always been our favorite part of the Jayhawks sound. The bright pop tunes “Save It For a Rainy Day” and “Tailspin” are the most obvious earworms, but for pure, unadulterated harmonic splendor, we’ll go with “Madman,” so reminiscent of Crosby Stills & Nash that all it’s missing is for Neil Young to refuse to go on a reunion tour with them.