Alabama 3 are one of those bands that I feel I should be able to like more than I do. I think the problem is mine more than theirs, but I just find it hard to enjoy music that doesn't take itself too seriously. Actually, that's not quite right - Alabama 3 take their music very seriously, and its really good - its what they put over the top of it that I singularly fail to identify with.
The whole concept of this album is based upon trying to create "modern English outlaw folk-songs" . It was apparently kicked off by a chance meeting between Rob Spragg (who calls himself Larry Love) and Great Train Robber Bruce Richard Reynolds. The idea is that the US has a tradition of such outlaw records but here in the UK we don't, so Alabama 3 are trying to create one. Well to me if you don't have that tradition, why try to create it? And why use American accents, American language and American music to do it? And as a rule I don't like criminals, petty or otherwise, so I find it hard to identify with the idea that they are cool.. All of which means that the whole lyrical and vocal side of this album is pretty much lost to me.
So lets talk about the music for a bit. The music on offer here is great - original, inventive, a kind of 21st Century Sandinista of mixed up styles - dance beats with blues riffs and country-style slide guitars. I think if I'd got an instrumental version of the album I would have loved it to death. If they were singing about life in London tower blocks instead of keeping your shades on, it could have been an immense record.
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Favourite song here is "Hello..I'm Johnny Cash", a genuinely funny tale of a guy who works in a factory where they pump out Shania Twain and Garth Brooks all day over the intercom, then goes home and lives the life of an alter ego, the aforementioned Johnny Cash. This one hits just the right note without trying too hard - you see, I can enjoy a bit of humour too! Special mention for final track "Gospel Train" too - it has a slower pace but is musically pure and uplifting..although again there are too many fake American accents and terms like "radiogram" for my liking..
I have a friend who loves this stuff, says they're fantastic live and thinks I'm just too uptight for my own good - I should just chill out and enjoy it - well I wish I could, but I'm left unfulfilled by this record and it seems to me just another of music's lost opportunities to create something genuinely unique and inspiring.
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