Sticks And Stones : moe. : Review : Rolling Stone

The five guys in Moe usually make albums this way: Write tunes, literally jam them into shape on tour, then cut 'em. This time, the upstate New York band flipped the script, recording songs as they were composed in the studio. The result is a concise, punchy good time, emphasizing the songcraft inside Moe's improvising mettle and the double-guitar pow of Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, even when they're not soloing. The second half of the album's title certainly applies to Schnier and Garvey's early-Seventies Mick Taylor-and-Keith Richards crossfire of high-treble slash and lightly distorted skids in the title song and the thumper "Queen of Everything." In "Darkness," the guitarists sound like a pair of Neil Youngs, trading crunchy flourishes behind bassist Rob Derhak's vocal. "Conviction Song" and "September" highlight Moe's autumnal-ballad gifts, particularly the deep-sigh grace of the band's harmonies. But if this was 1973, the FM pick-to-click here would be the Badfinger-like guitar chop and dirty-Eagles chorale of "All Roads Lead to Home" — which, for these songs, is now the stage.