After sitting out most the 1980s (his rootsy Oklahoma shuffle wasn’t well suited to a decade of synth-pop and hair metal), J.J. Cale ended a seven-year break from recording with Travel-Log. What better way to re-introduce himself than with an album loosely designed around one of his favorite themes — travel? The album was released on Silvertone, the British label home to U.K. heroes the Stone Roses, and it’s not hard to see Travel-Log as Cale’s attempt to connect with a younger audience. The front end of the record is lined with songs that aim to update Cale’s classic formula with modern production (“Shanghaid,” “Hold On Baby”) to mostly lukewarm results; the real gems are hidden in the back. The blues of “End of the Line,” “Humdinger,” and “River Boat Song” are among the finest productions of Cale’s career, with plenty of warm atmosphere and attention to detail. “Tijuana,” though, is the album’s highlight. Driven by the author’s famous shimmying guitar and a chorus of maracas and castanets, the song is the kind of mirage-like vision of Mexico that only Cale could conjure.