J J Cale albums tend to appear in much the same laid-back, unhurried manner as the music they contain. It's eight years since Guitar Man, but it's been well worth the wait. The basics remain essentially unchanged: a model of inspired simplicity built on infectious country-blues boogies, laced together with Cale's springy, fluid guitar fills, and capped by his intimate murmor extolling the discreet charms of "My Gal" or struggling none too energetically against the "Chains of Love". But there's always room for a few deft, innovative touches, such as the percussive keyboard pops that decorate drummer Jimmy Karstein's familiar funky backbeat on "My Gal", or the subtle vibes highlights that add an extra swing to the jogging shuffle "One Step". Or, most effectively of all, J J's foray into Latin-American territory with the slinky, conga driven samba "Rio" , a paen to the city. Lyrically, too, Cale is broadening his range, with the eco-song "Stone River" lamenting the drying - up of a once bountiful waterway (They bottled up and dammed it / Choked it up and canned it") and the quiet dismissal of George Bush in "The Problem" -"the man in charge has got to go" - constituting his first direct political protest. It makes you wonder : how bad does a president have to be to rouse the ire even of J J Cale?