CD Review: The dB's

It's been 25 years since the last dB's album, and since then their influence has spread all over indie rock. The NYC-by-way-of-North-Carolina power-pop band's snappy jangle and taut songwriting have been adapted by everyone from Fountains of Wayne and the New Pornographers to the Shins and Spoon. Falling Off the Sky, their first album featuring the original quartet since 1982's Repercussion, doesn't add anything new to the playbook other than a quarter century of road miles. Like in the old days, singer-songwriters Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey trade songs, riffs, and vocals. The best songs here — the greasy bar rocker "That Time Is Gone," the super-hooky "World to Cry" — mix '60s garage pop, late-'70s post-punk, and early '80s Amerindie. Some things never change. — Gallucci