Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color (Rough Trade)
All the expected flavours are in place on this second album from Alabama's fêted roots rock quartet, from Brittany Howard's Joplinesque vocals to the intricate, stop-start guitar parts and that very particular drum sound Steve Johnson demands of his producer (in this case veteran session man Blake Mills at Nashville's Sound Emporium studio). But from the opening title track to spacey soul ballad Gemini to psych-rock wig-out The Greatest there's also a sense of a band straining at the creative leash. The most audacious new sounds in the Shakes's sonic armoury are the vibraphone and glockenspiel parts which soar about the slowly-unspooling title track. Though the bands are miles apart musically, it's hard not to be reminded of the equally disciplined way The XX use space and (near) silence in their composition. One thing The XX don't have, however, is the most audacious old sound in the Shakes's armoury - Brittany Howard's extraordinary singing voice, still one of the most soulful and bewitching around. A brave and on occasions brilliant album, this is a step on for the young Americans.
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