(Yep Roc)

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The Iguanas were among the thousands dispersed from New Orleans by the great hurricane of 2003, and thereby displaced from their way of life in many respects as well, including making records. Now they've returned with a record whose title might suggest that the hurricane is its primary concern. That calamity does make its presence felt, in songs like "El Huracan y Pin Pon," which portrays a guy riding out a storm with his dog, and lyrical allusions, too--"like clouds and continents drifting apart/was it circumstance that broke our hearts?" asks the title track.

But this isn't a Katrina record per se. Instead, it's an act of resistance, of self-preservation, and of recovery in the face of the hurricane and its effects on the band: as band member Rod Hodges puts it, "it's like we survived...[the record] feels like a proper ending." More than that, it picks up where the band left off five years ago with Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart, once again forging a distinctive amalgam of multiple Latin strains, Tex-Mex, swampy rock, slinky soul and honking jazz, of English and Spanish ("Malas Vibras," the aforementioned "El Huracan y Pin Pon"), of vocals and instrumentals (the bossa beat of "The Fall," the soul jazz of "The Beep") that reaches its heights with the stately melancholy of "Her Red Fishnets" and the morphine-induced reveries of a dying man limned by both the words and music of "Okemah." If You Should Ever Fall on Hard Times shows the Iguanas not just surviving, but thriving.

Standout tracks: "Her Red Fishnets," "Okemah" STUART MUNRO