[1][3][4] In Rolling Stone, Dave DiMartino wrote, "If you were to take every NRBQ album ever released and grade it for sheer joy and listenability, well, you probably should spend less time grading and more time listening.... Brass Tacks... contains the fun, zest, humor and flat-out rock that has defined the band since their birth decades ago.

"[1] In PopMatters, Will Layman wrote, "While Adams is clearly the leader of the band when you see them in a small club these days – he's the circus master and the mad old man, the magician and the trickster – the music on all these records is decidedly cooperative, which was always the 'Q way.... All of the music might have appeared on an old NRBQ collection: it is tuneful, rootsy, rockabilly, sentimental, about cars or love or both, weird, interesting.

There’s hardly a tune here that isn't built with a sturdy set of chords or a fun metaphor at the center — but it's equally true that the recordings themselves are almost willfully casual.

"[2] On Making a Scene, Robert Putignano said, "I've always thought highly of Terry Adams piano playing and felt he never received the appropriate kudos for his creativity and superb chops.

So I am very impressed to hear their old-school familiar antics, along with a new flare for staying fully committed to carrying their unique banner into 2014 and (hopefully) onward.