Clay Class

In response to the warmth they'd experienced playing live to responsive crowds all across Europe, Tobin Prinz (voice, guitar, drums) and Suzi Horn (voice, bass, drums) were determined 'to bring in some color and some tenderness' to their second album. 'If you're going to face up to really difficult underlying themes,' says Prinz, 'sometimes the best way to do that is to let a bit of optimism in there.' And while optimism is not a quality with which this band's name was initially associated, the celebratory undertow of 'The Flora and Fauna of Britain in Bloom'—'a tin of mixed fruit on a special occasion'—confirms that the light at the end of the tunnel does not always have be an oncoming train.

It's hard to think of a band whose music gives a more thrillingly clear picture of what living in the 21st century is actually like. And from the livid call and response of 'Your Fire Has Gone Out' to the sensual domestic harmony of 'Sing Orderly,' this not-so-difficult second album will entrance skeptics and re-convert the converted. The bell has sounded for Clay Class. It's time get your hands dirty.