RIYL: Sevendust, Guano Apes, Muse

During their original run through the ’90s, Skunk Anansie was the alt-rock equivalent of “Beauty and the Beast.” When they weren’t breaking your heart with fragile, sparse ballads like “Secretly” and “Follow Me Down,” they were breaking your legs with political punk rock thrashers like “Selling Jesus” and “On My Hotel T.V.”

After a decade-long hiatus, the group is back, and for the first time they seem to be combining their penchant for romantic/lovelorn ballads and fast-paced mosh-friendly hard rock. Wonderlustre is the group’s most mainstream record to date, full of mid-tempo rock made for the radio. But Skunk Anansie playing for the pop crowd is still Skunk Anansie, and lead singer Skin’s powerful vocals and intelligent lyrics add depth to songs like “Over The Love” and “You’re Too Expensive,” which would be a bit too pedestrian and by-the-numbers without her. Skin also proves that her monopoly on beautiful-but-depressing songs about how much love sucks remains intact with the gut-wrenching “I Will Stay But You Should Leave” and “Talk Too Much,” two incredibly powerful songs that should be barred from the iTunes libraries of the recently dumped (trust me).

The music behind the lyrics needs some work, but its nice to see Skunk Anansie back. Even if they’re not at top form, Wonderlustre leaves little doubt that they soon will be once again. (V2 Records 2010)

Skunk Anansie MySpace page