Something must have uncorked Jeff Chaz when he recorded Sounds Like the Blues to Me, his previous album, because this is his second recording of original material within a year. Normally such a scenario spells disaster, since things could be rushed and sloppy, but Silence is just as strong, if not stronger. Some similarities do exist, such as how both close with shuffling instrumentals. The studio personnel are pretty much the same, barring the addition of a trumpeter and a trombonist to an already-sharp horn section.

A good portion of it is relatively lighthearted, with the slammin’ “I Ain’t Nothin’ Nice,” the psycho-mambo “I’m Not All There” and the hellish hangover “The Backwash Blues.” “Fried Chicken Store” is almost comical, since its gutbucket, intestine-ripping ambience is really about falling in love at, of all places, a greasy fried chicken joint where bottles of hot sauce are never out of reach.

But Silence has serious moments, too. On “The Blues is My Drug,” Chaz cleverly compares hardcore addiction to his preferred lifestyle of playing the blues before unleashing his most torrid guitar shredding of the album.

But when it’s time to stick the dagger in, his writing is at its best on the title song—a couple drifting out of love, hence the deathly silence.

Admittedly, everything here is something Chaz has lived at one time or another but it’s the swamp-poppy Christmas song that offers the motto to live by: “Leave old things behind/ Move onto the new.”