Alabama Shakes’ new songs are different and more 21st century
The problem with penning a towering achievement of a song like ‘Hold On’, a catchy yet simple blues-soul rock’n’roll song is that it overshadowed everything else including the album Boys & Girls that Alabama Shakes did after that. That may just me though, the album did sell in the millions.
Time apart from that birthing moment is a good thing and the band return with a second album Sound & Color on Rough Trade on April 21st and something else is happening that the band are calling “genre-bending”. They might be right too as both new tracks shared from the album demonstrate. Brittany Howard goes for a falsetto vocal and the band match it with some taut funk-rock encased in an almighty production that sound like the first time you pressed the bass-boost button on your stereo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giyD5IwsOe0&mc_cid=440caca370&mc_eid=968b36d94a
‘Don’t Wanna Fight’ meanwhile is more of a Detroit garage-rock track with a big chorus. Both songs suggest they’ve evolved their songwriting into something that’s unique to them in a rock’n’roll context without overly leaning on inspirations of the past.
Sound & Color was recorded in Nashville’s Sound Emporium studio and was co-produced with Blake Mills (Jesca Hoop, Lana Del Rey).
Track Listing:
1. Sound and Color
2. Don’t Wanna Fight
3. Dunes
4. Future People
5. Gimme All Your Love
6. This Feeling
7. Guess Who
8. The Greatest
9. Shoegaze
10. Miss You
11. Gemini
12. Over My Head
