The Rising Review

The reunion had an occasion and the occasion was enormous. Written in the months after the attacks, this avoids almost every trap it could have fallen into: there is no flag waving, no politics, and no attempt to speak for a nation. Instead there are specific people. You're Missing lists the objects in a house where someone is not coming home, and it is the best thing here by a distance.

Into the Fire and Empty Sky are quiet and exact. The title track builds a gospel structure out of a firefighter climbing stairs. Against that, the record runs seventy three minutes and the producer's instinct for a big clean modern rock sound smooths off edges that should have been left rough. Waitin' on a Sunny Day and Countin' on a Miracle are radio filler on an album that did not need any. Cut to fifty minutes it would be one of his best. As released it is admirable, uneven and heavy going.