The Bottle Rockets new album absolutely nails a sound and a vibe with a palpable sense of place - "Lean Forward" is suffused with the determination and resilience of their distinctly MidWestern roots, and oh, it's a flat out, smoking rock record, too. Reunited with producer Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel (who ran the knobs on their seminal albums "The Brooklyn Side" and "24 Hours A Day"), the Bottle Rockets do what no other band does better - populist anthems with the sympathetic eye of Woody Guthrie and sonic stomp of Crazy Horse. They are songs that demand the windows be rolled down and the volume turned up - "Lean Forward" has the locked down groove of a band on top of its game.