The Bottle Rockets Discography
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Albums
 The Bottle RocketsZoysia Release Date 2006 Label Evangeline (UK) Rating:  For about two years in the mid-'90, it looked like the Bottle Rockets were going to break out of the alt country underground and take their ragged-but-right Dixie-fried hard rock to the larger audience they deserved. But after Atlantic Records dropped the promotional ball on 1997's underappreciated 24 Hours a Day, the Bottle Rockets' fortunes took a turn for the worse and coincidentally, they also seemed to jump the groove in the recording studio; while the band never made a flat-out bad album, Brand New Year and Blue Sky failed to connect with the same degree of muscle, street smarts, and regular-guy philosophy they achieved with such apparent ease on The Brooklyn Side and 24 Hours a Day. Thankfully, 2006's Zoysia finds the Bottle Rockets finally back at full-strength again. Brian Henneman and company sound agreeably loose but totally emphatic on these 11 songs, diving into the tunes with the commitment of a veteran roadie who knows you can't rock out by worrying stuff to death, but still striking the targets with the right degree of force. This lineup of the Bottle Rockets -- with longtime members Henneman (vocals and guitar) and Mark Ortmann (drums) joined by John Horton (guitar) and Keith Voegele (bass) -- doesn't pack the firepower of The Brooklyn Side edition of the group, but they hit their marks with a graceful touch that doesn't keep them from bringing the rock to numbers like &"Better Than Broken" and the title song. And Zoysia is the strongest set of songs Henneman has written since 24 Hours a Day, blending deeply personal first-person stories (&"I Quit" and &"Where I'm From"), meditations on busted romance (&"Better Than Broken" and &"Happy Anniversary"), and telling observations of the American political and cultural landscape circa 2006 (&"Align Yourself," &"Blind," and &"Zoysia"). Henneman is that rare guy who writes from the heart and the gut, and can say something powerfully moving without getting pretentious; he's a seriously underrated lyricist, and his growling Neil Young-influenced guitar chords are just the right accompaniment for his words. Zoysia finds Henneman with a batch of fine tunes, a great band, and a producer (Jeff Powell), who can get it all on tape without either sapping their strength or getting in the way; the result is one of the best albums the Bottle Rockets have released to date, and a superb return to form from a great American band. Listen hard and turn it up. Mark Deming, Rovi |
Tracks:
| Title | Composer | Time | |
| 1 | Better Than Broken | Henneman, Ortmann | 4:05 |
| 2 | Middle Man | Horton, Voegele, Henneman, Ortmann | 3:52 |
| 3 | I Quit | Taylor, Henneman | 2:44 |
| 4 | Happy Anniversary | Henneman | 4:50 |
| 5 | Blind | Henneman | 4:50 |
| 6 | Mountain to Climb | Taylor, Henneman | 2:41 |
| 7 | Align Yourself | Taylor, Henneman | 3:06 |
| 8 | Suffering Servant | Henneman, Ortmann | 2:47 |
| 9 | Feeling Down | Voegele | 2:52 |
| 10 | Where I'm From | Henneman | 3:59 |
| 11 | Zoysia | Taylor | 7:04 |
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