Human Era

Human Era, released by Frontiers in June 2015, is the fourth album. The method follows the last one: basic tracks at Steve Brown's home studio, with Pete Loran sending his vocals back from Arizona. Brown said flatly that after more than twenty-five years of making records the band keeps getting better, and that this was the best one they had made. The line-up has not changed since 1983, which means all four studio albums were built by the same four people. There is no showy experiment here — it commits to sounding good songs in good sound. Hard drums and a riff open “Rockin' to the Edge of the Night,” and “Crash That Party” follows. “For You,” with its double bass drums and guitar exchanges, is the track Brown singled out as something Trixter had never done, and the words are aimed at the fans. “Midnight in Your Eyes” stacks vocals in a Def Leppard manner, and “All Night Long” races into a long solo. Past “Soul of a Lovin' Man,” with horns added, the title track closes the eleven on a low, restrained vocal. That is the standard edition; the acoustic “Always a Victim” and others were iTunes-only extras.