In 1986, Timbuk3 arrived with a novel blend of soft Southwestern guitar playing and beat-box rhythms. The arrangement won the combo attention, but over time the combination of acoustic instruments and metallic beats wore thin. On Big Shot in the Dark, their fourth album, Pat and Barbara K MacDonald, the Austin, Texas, husband-and-wife team behind Timbuk3, have taken steps, and the result is warmer and more spontaneous. The MacDonalds produced Big Shot themselves, and they introduce a living, breathing rhythm section – Wally Ingram on drums and percussion and Courtney Audain on bass – and play down the drum programming. Big Shot even rocks a little.

"God Made an Angel," the opening track, recalls familiar Timbuk3 terrain, but some live percussion suggests that something new is afoot. Though Big Shot's title track, a somber indictment of a yuppie who has abandoned his soul for a fast buck, presents issues reminiscent of the 1989 album Edge of Allegiance, it adds gossamer layers of resonant guitars. Not until "Mudflap Girl" do things shift to mean and lean, as boisterous electric guitars take center stage. The tune, a trucker's anthem, features ferocious lead and slide guitar from Evan Johns (of Austin's Evan Johns and the H-Bombs). Timbuk3 keeps the amps plugged in on "Dis***land (Was Made for You and Me)" and "The Little Things."

Big Shot stumbles in places: "Two Medicines" boasts a supple harmonica solo, but its attempt at rap sounds strained. "The Border Crossing" sketches an immigrant's plight, but Barbara's reading of the lyrics is a bit flat. An instrumental take on "Sunshine" (a sung version appears earlier), however, featuring affable steel-drum work, ends Big Shot in the Dark with a distinctly human touch – and the promise that Timbuk3's next effort will be even more full-bodied and warmer still. (RS 617)

ANDY WEBSTER