Everyone's favorite southern-fried slingers are back with thirteen tunes culled from a set of sessions that saw them track twice that number. (The rest, we are told, will surface soon on a disc tentatively titled Go-Go Boots.)

For those of you into this sort of thing, Patterson Hood has penned a track-by-track rundown of The Big To-Do for the band's website. Apparently, it all began with "Drag the Lake Charlie." Hood writes:

"This was the first song we tracked for the album and it kinda set the tone for how the album was going to sound sonically. We wanted to do a 'Big Rock' album since our last one was so swampy."

The album itself, however, opens with "Daddy Learned to Fly," and the first snare crack had us wondering--did Mr. Hood mean "Big Rock" or "Bob Rock"? As to the aforementioned "Drag the Lake Charlie," it's just f*cking irritating. For the record, lead guitars don't belong in brass quintets. To wit: effects that sound like cheap trumpet mutes are never a good idea. Whatever the motivation, be it less swamp or more Bob Rock, the boys missed the boat here.

As long as we're on the subject of sh*tty effects and infamous producers, "(It's Gonna Be) I Told You So" sounds like something Phil Spector should have gotten his hands on circa 1963. In fact, both of the Shania Twain...erm, uh...Shonna Tucker tunes seem a tad out of place. "You Got Another" is pleasant enough, but, well, we'll leave it at that.

To be fair, The Big To-Do is a decent record (and Pitchfork's 7.4 out of 10 probably does the disc justice). "This F*cking Job" might be little more than one big, cheezy riff, but we support the sentiment. And "After the Scene Dies" might not be altogether innovative, but we can dig it. The hands-down highlight, however, is Mike Cooley's "Birthday Boy." Even if you give the disc a miss, drag yourself over to iTunes and toss the band a birthday buck.

In Summation:  Two-and-a-half cheezeballs for "Drag the Lake Charlie," Bob Rock, and insisting on an "everyone contributes" approach to the album. Egalitarianism has its limits.