As on '(A) Senile Animal', this release sees the core duo of Dale Crover and King Buzzo fleshed out by the metal apprentices - and a wonderful band on their own - Big Business. It's hard to tell how much this teaming up might have affected the bands overall sound: sure Big Business leave their mark all over 'Nude With Boots', but it's also undoubtedly a Melvins album, not a collaboration piece.

Old, old bands are often excused for their later releases. As a band's sun begins to set on the day of their career, they are tolerated as they wheel out sub-standard new material in front of their adoring fans on the promise that they'll get some more of the old stuff. Melvins are no typical old, old band though. Over their 24 year career, their output has been regular, and, though not always entirely satisfactory, rarely has it been stale, overdone, or unimaginative. 'Nude With Boots' is no exception. It's an album which could easily attract listeners on its own merits alone. Admittedly, these new listeners might be even more satisfied when they dig a little deeper and unearth some of the old greats from their catalogue, but still there's a lot to be appreciated with this release.

This album takes a strange direction. It's a little tricky to position it on the spectrum of sounds Melvins have already covered, mostly because it samples from them all. Sure, it's not a revisiting of their excruciatingly minimalist phase, but still it's a bit of a mixture of the others: the very early style of fast, rapidly changing, guitar-based metal is present on tracks like 'Dog Island'; there's flashes of the slightly poppier side the band have exhibited before dotted around; there's also a new kind of sound emerging, most notably on 'Dies Iraea': a kind of cinematic style of metal; there's even some electronic squelchy noise tinkering for about a minute ('Flush').

Regardless of the style, one thing the band are rarely short of is imagination. Sure, there are moments when something just feels a little obvious about the music, when they retread the 90s poppy-metal sound which once was so fruitful but now seems too much, but for the most part 'Nude With Boots' really is solidly thoughtful and fresh sounding. There's no sense that Melvins are going through the motions here; there isn't a sense of a formula being churned out; the impression is that - still - a lot of time, energy, and thought goes into each track and that Melvins are interested in making something exciting, new, and good not something hackneyed, old and profitable.

One complaint I do have is that, in some areas, the production seems a little weak. No doubt, it's also extremely strong in other areas ('The Smiling Cobra' especially stands out), but it feels like, when the band revisits it's early-days style, something is missing. The sound back then, the biting, crisp guitars, crashing, ear-dominating drums, and sparse but killer vocals, made for incredible listening and top-notch albums. Now though, when you hear the same musical qualities, and same style of tracks, they just feel a little neutered; something's missing; that old rawness, the perfect sound for the music they were making, is gone, to be replaced with something much less intense.

Aside from a couple of little grievances though, this album will satisfy across the spectrum. From metalheads to indie kids, Melvins are likeable, and listenable. Though the temptation is there to dismiss them for their age (an assumption you'd be forgiven for making, based on the trends), it's clear from one listen that it'd be a mistake. Melvins still have music to make and they're going to make it. They aren't spent; they aren't out of ideas. Perhaps they're just tapping the spring of youth they found in Big Business, but I suspect otherwise.