Mighty Mighty Bosstones

What the world needs now is a new Mighty Mighty Bosstones album. Seriously. At a time when so much of the industry’s output has become the musical equivalent of junk mail, a new Bosstones album is like receiving a series of postcards from a vacationing friend: handwritten, infectiously fun, wish-you-were-here inclusive, and, overall, personal. And fortunately for the world, the Boston-based wild bunch was recently inspired to record one of its best thus far.

"I just want the people who like the Bosstones to get this album and go, ‘this is great. It’s familiar yet new. It’s what we’ve come to expect from these guys,’" says ring leader Dicky Barrett. "Those are the victories; that’s what we shoot for, which is a lot."

And Jackknife To A Swan feels like victory. As the title suggests, the punk, ska and reggae inflected album simultaneously makes a huge splash and gracefully cuts the surface with songcraft perfected over the band’s last two albums, 1997’s platinum-selling Lets Face It and 2000’s Pay Attention. That was the Bosstones’ intent when they began recording their seventh studio album in Boston late last year with producer John Seymour (Sick Of It All, Bouncing Souls.)