In September 2015, The Mothers Hips’ guitarist and vocalist Tim Bluhm was in a freak speed-flying accident, which left his body bruised and battered. He had to go through numerous surgeries, replacing his ankle, a shattered hip and more. So it’s a bit of a modern miracle that the band has returned just a few years later with a new studio album, Chorus , after potentially losing it all. Since their 1992 debut Back to the Grotto , the band has always been rather freewheeling when it comes to their studio work. Go in, figure it out. But for Chorus , they took the opposite approach and spent a year crafting demos before the actual studio sessions took place. And the result paid off—they sound polished and willing to explore many more sounds and styles than on past recordings while still presenting a cohesive offering. Standout numbers include the country-rocker “It’ll Be Gone,” which starts out as an acoustic number, but builds into something that recalls the guitar stylings of Wilco’s Nels Cline, while Bluhm ominously sings “I’ve got a secret/ I’ll tell you my friend/ I’m going to Heaven in a pop-top can.” The power-pop anthem “End of the Chorus” retains that classic Hips sound they cultivated in the ‘90s, where metaphors about bad choices and darkness are run throughout. And on “January,” the Hips get somber and nostalgic, with Bluhm tenderly espousing a goodbye of sorts: “All the things you left behind/ Material and the human kind/ Never could define you.” Chorus could be an album about all the things that Bluhm likely experienced in the aftermath of his accident or his personal and professional breakup with wife and former bandmate Nicki. Either way, The Mother Hips are in fine form.