Spooky Tooth - You Broke My Heart So... I Busted Your Jaw (2004)

Sadly, the most distinctive thing about Spooky Tooth's sixth album is its title. While the band became a well-oiled ensemble of talented musicians (especially with the addition of future Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones), it wasn't especially groundbreaking or original, relying too much on generic early-'70s blues-rock, with pedestrian, humorless lyrics. The gospel choir in "Holy Water" and the funky guitars in "Wildfire" are ties to the older, less heavy Spooky Tooth, but the rest, even the ballad "Self Seeking Man," are standard-issue Led Zeppelin/Bad Company-style hard rock. The playing is impressive (especially Jones' guitar leads and Gary Wright's keyboards), but without much in the way of memorable songs, it's mostly wasted. The lyrics aren't any more notable, consisting of either simple love songs or odes to self-pity. The one exception, "Cotton Growing Man," is a bizarre diatribe against Southern slave owners that sounds about 100 years out of date. Fans of the genre should probably find You Broke My Heart enjoyable, but others need not bother.