The Jayhawks

This is the first record Mark Olson and Gary Louris have made together as the Jayhawks in 16 years, and an expanded, worldly, even experimental sound describes what resulted. That is certainly the case with the winding, shape-shifting “High Water Blues,’’ say, or the guitar effects that show up in “Guilder Annie.’’ But, really, “Mockingbird Time’’ is more a return to the classic Jayhawks sound that the pair mined - especially on the one-two punch of their early 1990s releases, “Hollywood Town Hall’’ and “Tomorrow the Green Grass’’ - before Olson’s departure in 1995. The elements of that aesthetic manifest in ample shades of pop (“Hide Your Colors,’’ which is copiously adorned with stately strings), Byrdsian psychedelic folk (“Cinnamon Love’’), and, of course, dusty alt-country (“Tiny Arrows,’’ “She Walks in So Many Ways’’). Above all, “Mockingbird Time’’ revisits what made the Louris-Olson Jayhawks truly distinctive: the omnipresent, twining, joyous interplay of their voices. That pairing is here again in full force. (Out today)