The core members of visceral grunge merchants Mudhoney have been peddling their filthy, fuzzed-up rock & roll for nigh-on 20 years now, but the band's eighth album, Since We've Become Translucent, proves these toothless old dogs still have the edge. Returning to a post-White Stripes world where fuzzed-out garage rock is firmly in the ascendant, you'd think now would be the ideal time for Mudhoney to make a quick buck. But this band always possessed a trippy edge that many of their grunge peers lacked, and the opening "Baby, Can You Dig the Light"--eight minutes of wailing brass and sludgy Grateful Dead-style acid jammery--proves they still have a wickedly contrary side. This is certainly no by-numbers record: the dynamic "Inside Job", featuring the MC5's Wayne Kramer on bass guitar, the ragged doom-metal discord of "Crooked and Wide" and the driving "Sonic Infusion" are as good as anything they've ever written. It would be somewhat redundant to compare Mudhoney to newer flag-bearers for the garage sound, bands such as the Von Bondies or the Dirtbombs. But if it finds these hoary old Seattle veterans scoring a well-deserved reappraisal, it can only be a good thing. --Louis Pattison