Kristen Hersh and half sis Tanya Donelly have certainly taken separate career paths since their obscure, but ahead-of-their-time days together in Throwing Muses. Although I've always kept step with Kristen and have adored several of her solo records, I'm nothing if not a moon-eyed fanboy of Tanya Donelly, her Belly debut is still among my favorite albums period and I've remained true through her slow fade into obscurity since the day when she was on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

All of which makes their quasi-reunion such a pleasure for me. True this is a Throwing Muses album in old-school tradition with Kristen calling the shots and Tanya relegated to harmonies, but what makes this reunion particularly noteworthy is the reappearance of TM's extremely underrated and fascinating rhythm section - bassist Bernard Georges and drummer David Narcizo. With these two musical alchemists back where they belong this new release sounds like it could have been the album that preceded '96s Limbo.

Of course underscoring all of this welcome return is the renewed passion that seems to have taken hold of Hersh. Back is her almost supernatural ability to evoke magic from a guitar. From hypnotic snake charming moments that morph into cacophonous majesty, her guitar playing here makes it clear why Tanya was only needed for her backing vocals. Hersh also has no trouble carrying the songwriting alternating between her husky come-hither croak to her wailing rants that fight to stay in front of the musical din, she's in fine form. Her lyrics have never been so in-your-face and urgent, and though this album is well produced the songs have a rawness to them that would almost suggest that they were recorded in two days with a gun held to their head.

If you're a fan of these two in any of there many incarnations (Tanya once played with Kim Deal of the Pixies on the Breeders debut), Then you're certainly in for a treat. What I would like to see now is an album where the halfsies, go halfsies with an entire album. It would either be a train wreck or an utter masterpiece - in any case it's nice to half the family back together again.