Review Summary: Running right through them red flags
All of 2 minutes into
What Now and I was regretting that I hadn’t given Alabama Shakes more time or attention when they were around. What had I thought about them, all the way back when their music was hitting the airwaves? Certainly that they were respectable, Hold On was a damn fine single, but I think I lumped them in with the general retro-rock-revival of the era and let them go off into the distance without so much as a third glance. Meanwhile, in the present day, I’m being hit with the realization that Brittany Howard has crafted one of the most lush, effortlessly versatile, unabashedly nostalgic albums I’ve heard in a long time, an album that shines out in an absolute ocean of other artists reaching more-or-less successfully for something new in those same retro vibes, an album that well stands on its own merits as more than another glitzed-up hauntological piece of Stevie-worship.
But before
What Now could open itself up to me, a couple of fears had to be assuaged. Few musical trends of the past decade have been such a beautiful house of cards as the soul/funk revival, a house that, for all its glitter and shine, didn’t stand up to any amount of deeper scrutiny. Thundercat’s hi-def muddled psych-whiff, Wulfpeck’s cheese-and-crackers pleasantry, Anderson .paak’s undeniable talent merged with a commitment to base cliche, SZA and Solange’s smooth, fatuous melding of glamor and attitude, all felt
close to bringing a real advancement to soul music, a real movement that would live up to the promise of
Black Messiah (which is, along with
Blonde, arguably the only indisputable neo-soul classic of the past decade or more), but which never really felt like more than a glamorous reupholstering of a classic vehicle at best and glib imitation at worst. And
What Now, while landing squarely in that shining restoration end of the spectrum, often does enough to nudge itself outside that box, to touch upon territory that gives Howard credibility not just as a purveyor of an impeccably updated classic vehicle, but something that often feels genuinely fresh and vital.
Now, this feeling of freshness isn’t unequivocal. The honey-gold harmonies of Earth Sign are a thing of pure loveliness, the plush luxury of that impeccable production, the soaring, living-room cosmic trip atmosphere ending up an immediate high point that promises more than the rest of the album delivers. I Don’t, as a follow up, takes a big step back into slightly shimmery Motown territory, and it’s gorgeous, but it’s never going to stick in the consciousness for more than a couple of runtimes, a fact that inspires exactly the kind of fear I went into this thing with. It’s not the last time this happens either, but the rolling, pulsating funk groove of What Now brings the expectations back, the variegated richness of the rhythm and groove revealing itself at this point as one of the great strengths of
What Now. Howard and Co. are uniquely versatile within the funk/soul idiom, touching on variations of mood and style with an infinite ear for atmosphere, and a better-than-average knack for hookwriting, an underrated strength in an ocean of albums that seem to believe that coasting on vibes is all a good pop album needs. Case in point, Red Flags, which takes an almost frantic percussive focus to a tense and pulsating dissection of a doomed relationship. Prove It To You ends up another highlight, backing an excellent set of verses with an impossible-to-sit-still-to house groove. But nonetheless, when tracks like Another Day and Samson meander along in their dreamy pink haze it feels so safe, so nice, and ultimately so hollow, a fact which, more or (mostly) less, shows itself on the remainder of the album.
So with the highlights so readily identifiable, and the rest rolling along in a glittering renovation that provides a top-tier rendition of this style, why don’t I love it as much as I feel like I should? It could be that the scales tip too heavily in favor of atmosphere over the strong and original songwriting that Brittany has amply proven she’s capable of. Multiple times, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there really wasn’t any need for a talent as deep as hers to sacrifice her knack for a brilliant hook to gorgeous atmospherics, as so often happens outside of the above-mentioned highlights, highlights which more than prove that she’s capable of doing both. Conversely, if there had been a stronger intention towards a more experimental bent, one that fused the deep-running vitality of the band as a whole with Howard’s gorgeous voice and a willingness to push a few more boundaries; in short, if there had been a dash or two more of Alice Coltrane in this brew, it could easily have shone brilliantly as one of the neo-soul greats. As it is, the approach feels middle-of-the-road and slightly safe, the pieces certainly there, but not quite assembled yet. As it is,
What Now, while ultimately both brilliant and lovely, teeters too often on the edge of the unconvincing for Howard to lay claim to the classic she deserves to reach for, but every time I throw this on, I have zero trouble just running through those red flags and enjoying it for what it is.
