*** The Black Crowes

BY YOUR SIDE

(Columbia)

Despite a new slogan -- "The Most `Rock 'n' Roll' Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World" -- and a new bassist (Sven Pipien, who replaces the departed Johnny Colt), the Black Crowes have made an album that marks a deliberate return to the old. By Your Side is their fifth, and on it the Crowes jettison much of the turgid Allmans-by-way-of-Blues-Traveler neo-hippie jamming that landed them on the H.O.R.D.E. tour in favor of the shaggy Faces/Stones vibe that made their first couple of albums so irresistible. Although the result isn't quite the guilty pleasure of 1990's Shake Your Moneymaker or '92's Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (the new disc's title track, for example, is a pale rewrite of the Crowes' first hit, "Jealous Again") the band, for all the recent shake-ups, haven't sounded this focused in ages. Guitarist Rich Robinson's emphasis on doling out a smorgasbord of thorny, horny riffs (he handled all lead as well as rhythm in the wake of Marc Ford's departure) and scarecrow brother Chris's spirited testifying about old stand-bys like virtue and vice on songs like, uh, "Virtue and Vice," make this a familiar yet satisfying welcome back from the hemp tent.

-- Jonathan Perry