Day 368: Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
I’m in the mood to start microdosing consuming 2010s Tumblr music for mental health purposes – it was a simpler time. I wanted something of the era’s blues rock output that I hadn’t listened to so much back in the day that it’d remind me of my questionable choices in fashion and life, so I thought I’d finally listen to a full album by Alabama Shakes. It’s a fitting choice also because they’ve just released a comeback album and ended their eight year hiatus.
Album cover courtesy of ATO Records
Alabama Shakes was formed in Athens, Alabama by lead vocalist and guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, and bassist Zac Cockrell in 2009. They started off playing covers of bands like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC in their local dive bars and took the money that they got from the gigs to record an album of original material. Their debut album Boys & Girls was released in 2012, which peaked at number six on the Billboard 200.
Their second release, Sound & Color, propelled the group to worldwide fame in 2015, earning them a whopping six Grammy nominations and four wins. It was written over the course of a year and it represented a shift in the group’s sound into being significantly more experimental than their first album. However, it ended up being the group’s last album before they went on their extended break.
I thought I’d enjoy this album as a vaguely nostalgic product of its time, but it’s stood the test of time so well that it’s actually just good on its own. It’s arguably kind of retro with its blues, psychedelia and soul, but they put their own twist to it to such an extent that it still sounds fresh and unique, even today – it’s not them pretending to be someone else from 50 years ago, but they’re instead doing something new with older influences. The clearest direct influence I hear is quite a lot of Led Zeppelin here and there, but even that’s done in a way that’s completely different to them.
And I don’t even know what to say about Brittany Howard, what a voice. She’s one of those people who if you hear once, you’ll be able to recognise forever. I think quite a lot of the time I was so captivated by her singing that I completely forgot to pay attention to what she was actually saying, so I don’t have much to say today about the lyricism, but I have to say it’s very rare for me to just completely blank on the words. I’ll take that as high praise for Brittany Howard.
I enjoyed this one, it’s somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9, I’m leaning a bit more towards an 8.5/10. I’m keen to hear their new release, which is apparently about the current American political climate.