Review:
'ALABAMA 3'
'REACHIN''
- Label: 'ONE LITTLE INDIAN'
- Genre: 'Dance'
- Release Date: '3/2/03'- Catalogue No: '383TP7CD'
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Our Rating:
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Considering the fact that they could have gone ugly supernova by association after supplying the timeless "Woke Up This Morning" (forever immortalised as the wake up call for Jim Gandolfini and co in 'THE SOPRANOS'), that ALABAMA 3 remain the gnarliest enigmas on the block is nothing short of blessed in this writer's eyes.
Culled from their recent (and by some ways best) album "Power In The Blood"),you should already know "Reachin'". If not, well this is the deal: it's a deliciously dissolute techno-blues cruise, enhanced by Larry and D.Wayne's husky, 100-a day rasping,sassy chick backing vox, and that just so, almost blue chorus. "I started talking Jackson Pollocks, walking Tony Soprano" they mutter, shuffling off into the yawning dawn after another evangelical night.
The two new tracks confirm the impression that Brixton's finest are on a roll right now. To these dog-eared lugs, "The River Unbroken" night just be the very best thing A3 have yet committed to tape, so to chuck it away as a B-side seems recklessly cavalier.
Opening with great tumbling piano and wafting slide a la Brian Jones circa "No Expectations", it soon settles into a ragged gospel lope that's unsteady on its' pins, but oddly (and infectiously) glorious too. When the chorus rises dangerously high with the "When will the whistle blow?" refrain and The Spirit's beautiful Hammond spills all over your senses,you get the feeling this is one of the few bands who SHOULDN'T be locked up for blathering about spirituality. Gorgeous.
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Final track "Don't Dig Any Deeper, Darling" is steeped in the colder, harsher light of reality and is flecked by urgent guitars before setting up yet another of those blighted, hooks-in-your-brain choruses the A3 are learning to dispense at will. Once again, disappointment doesn't dare enter the picture.
"The first taste of temptation is the sweetest taste of all" mutters the Rev D.Wayne almost subliminally during this track. Damn right it is. On this form, the ALABAMA 3's unwholesome, but utterly addctive prescription can't fail to fatch a price on the streets. Don't even think of 'phoning the clinic.
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author: TIM PEACOCK
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READERS COMMENTS
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Weird thing that no one realizes that these clowns are the REAL thing. Christians, I mean. Ugh! Their interviews fool ya. Their drug analogies do not SEEM to fit. But just listen with the idea that they are literally serious with the lyrics, and don't get distracted with the extraneous sh*t and damn fine music (I admit) and you'll hear what I'm saying. They acheive irony with sunglasses, cowboy hats, and bad accents. Oh well, I guess it goes to show that no one reads Kierkegaard anymore (which is a good thing, I suppose, just historicall...shortened comments
------------- Author: yip
11 May 2005
(finishing up my previous post) just historically ignorant.
It's always been a gas to me (proving no one has ever read Kierkegaard) that the cool athiest Sarte and that most fanatical of Christians are both labeled under the rubric "existentialists." S.K. the "Father of existentialism": hah! Listen to A3, enjoy some of teh best music you'll ever hear, but just be careful that the lyrics to not penetrate to deeply (Song of Solomon style).
------------- Author: yip
11 May 2005
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