Red Heaven

The first album Throwing Muses recorded after Tanya Donelly left, and Kristin Hersh retreated from the music industry, Red Heaven is the sound of a group who, in the words of drummer David Narcizo, “didn’t give a shit.” It’s not carefree, exactly, but it does communicate some hard-won truths with the Muses’ typical ‘awkward elegance.’ Bob Mould (of Hüsker Dü and Sugar) guests on “Dio,” and Leslie Langston returns (after leaving the group in 1989) on bass for the album sessions, but the core of Red Heaven is Hersh and Narcizo; in that respect, it’s actually the consummate Muses album. Hersh’s songs feel newly elastic at times, opener “Furious” is monolithic and imposing, “Summer St.” is Hersh’s tenderest moment yet, “Pearl” is a psychodrama in miniature. New-found freedom rarely sounded so good.