In the four years since the last Split Lip Rayfield record, the band had to overcome the loss of founding member Kirk Rundstrom to cancer. In that respect, I'll Be Around is an affirmation of the band's 14-year journey and the scars its gas-tank bass and three surviving members have accumulated. The fifth album is vintage Split Lip Rayfield: equal parts goofball humor ("The High Price of Necromancy") and straight-faced sincerity ("I'll Be Around"). The players are masters of their instruments — banjo, mandolin, guitar and one-sting bass — but hardly showoffs, preferring to let the sublime three-part harmonies and slice-of-life stories do the talking. The tempos still race but don't careen off the edge as they once did. That's likely how the members of SLR are living these days, and it's a joy to have them around.
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