In War and Peace you get Syd Straw's terrific singing voice backed by the Skeletons, a bar/garage band that rocks loud (much better here, I think, than on their own CD)and often. It's a great match. Straw rangs right up there with Amy Rigby and the Go-Go's in picking jerk boyfriends, but the music she makes of these broken relationships is often superb.

The Toughest Girl in the World, Million Miles, CBGB, and Madrid are the best cuts, where her longing, anguished, and plain furious vocals soar against the rousing Skeletons guitars and drums to project a party-through-the heartache determination. All Things Change, Howl, and Black Squirrel fall considerably short of the rest of the 14 cuts, however. The latter two are particularly overwrought. Leave them off and you've got an eleven track 5-star classic. As it is, War and Peace is still powerful evidence of rock's ability to make even the bad times something good.