'Brave, Clean + Reverent,' the first album by Austin's Wild Seeds, was tough, tight heartland rock, verbally engaging and rhythmically refreshing. Mud, Lies + Shame, their second, is even better and, as its title suggests, rougher. The new batch of songs by guitarist-vocalist Michael Hall are all over the place stylistically, from hard pop to bluesy country rock, but he brings steady determination and an overload of energy to them all. The forbidding "Like a Fall" distills sources as wide ranging as Buffalo Springfield and Bruce Springsteen into a workable whole; the modified two-step "Ramblin'" turns country and blues traveling myths on their heads.

The Wild Seeds are a broad young band, able to take on the triumphant, jangling "Debi Came Back" and the hilarious "I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long" with equal aplomb. (The latter features the vivid put-down "You've been watching too much MTV.") The vocabulary of lead guitarist Bo Solomon is as level and unpredictable as Hall's verbal one – even on the few occasions when his solos creep onto the notes you're expecting, he twists or slurs them to keep them new.

But the number-one reason for the Wild Seeds' tremendous improvement since their first album is the increased prominence of backup singer Kris McKay. McKay has most of the irrepressible instincts of Lone Justice's lead diva, Maria McKee, but none of her infuriating pretensions. She propels the reflective "Long Gone Train"; and on "You Will Be Married to a Jealous Man," a giddy duet with Hall, she spits out fire and brimstone. But her solo showcase, the straight country "All This Time," is the most welcome surprise on Mud, Lies + Shame. McKay alternates ferocious swoops with sure-handed restraint and shuts down the album with rough dignity. This album is so well constructed that even the background singer is a champion – listen to the record and find out how good the lead singer is. (RS 524)

JIMMY GUTERMAN