IN REVIEW: Alabama Shakes - "Sound & Color"

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Building on the success of their breakthrough debut, Alabama Shakes' second album finds them continuing to explore the deep, soulful sounds of their home turf while incorporating a somewhat experimental spirit. There isn't really anything on Sound & Color quite as immediate as breakout hit Hold On, but the album makes up for it with songs that explore and sometimes tear down their own boundaries. Take, for instance, the way the band locks into that groove during the closing moments of Dunes. Or the transformation of Gimme All Your Love from slow burning ballad to charging soul rocker.

Current single Future People, meanwhile, shows The Black Keys how their last album could have sounded with a more sensible production approach. Layered but authentic, polished but rugged, it's a near perfect implementation of retro elements into a modern rock sound. It's perhaps matched by Shoegaze, a distorted amalgamation of the Stones and T-Rex as filtered through Kings of Leon.

Not everything sticks, and some experiments come off sounding a little off. The warped blues of Gemini, for example, doesn't have much of anything to offer aside from Howard's vocals, and they've been tinkered with to the point she sounds inhuman. It worked for Radiohead; Alabama Shakes not so much. Guess Who, meanwhile, wastes its sonic similarities to The Guess Who with pointless muffling of the sound. Maybe if I was reviewing this on 8-track, that wouldn't be such a big deal.

Overall, Sound & Color hits more than it misses, and it proves Alabama Shakes as a band that's not content to paint itself into a corner. It can be a somewhat difficult and uneven listen, but it's never boring; it's the sound of a band trying to figure out where to go next, and chances are better than not that's going to be somewhere truly amazing.

April 21, 2015 • ATO/Maple Music
Highlights Dunes • Gimme All Your Love • Future People

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