Sound and Color by Alabama Shakes
It’s been a few months since Alabama Shakes dropped their sophomore album “Sound and Color,” and if you haven’t listened to it yet, do yourself a favor and get on that right away. Frontwoman Brittany Howard’s vocals range from syrupy and soothing to agonized and raspy, and her band carries her along with great musicianship and a lot of heart. The album is at once mournful, playful, funky and punky, and it’s been a solid few days since I’ve listened to anything else.
And it’s not just that they’re really damn good at making music–there’s something refreshing about this band. If you look around these days, it’s clear that cultural co-opting in music didn’t end with Elvis Presley (don’t get mad at me, Elvis fans–I’m not the only one pointing this out) and a couple of corny white rappers. The singer of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a soul group out of Alabama, sounds like Otis Redding but looks like he could be related to Seth Rogen. Here in San Francisco, where I write this, I’m hard pressed to remember the last time I saw a jazz band that had a single African American member. Knowing that Alabama Shakes, one of the grittiest and most soulful big-name acts today outside of R&B, is fronted by a person of color is a welcome reprieve from this awkwardness.
As a white guy whose music has never been ripped off by a more dominant social group, I at first had reservations about whether it’s my place to lament cultural appropriation in music. Just last week, with the incident between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift, we’ve seen the discomfort that arises when a white person focuses conversation about a race issue on themselves. Besides, St. Paul and the Broken Bones are staggeringly talented, as are many of the jazz bands I see around San Francisco, and there’s only so much you can criticize someone for emulating their heroes. These musicians’ passion for jazz, soul and other traditionally black genres is clearly sincere; we’re not talking about Iggy Azalea, here. But when African Americans are underrepresented in a genre they created, I can’t help but worry that a crucial cultural pillar of American musical history is under threat.
Of course, it would be disingenuous and absurd to suggest that Brittany Howard’s ethnicity were the only reason to view Alabama Shakes as more authentic than the other acts I’ve mentioned. There’s also the fact that while their music is infused with soul and R&B sensibilities, they’re not simply a soul or R&B group; their music sounds like what the soul of 50 or 60 years ago has grown into, with the passage of time and after encountering modern rock, instead of coming off as an imitation presented as a clever homage. While many grapple with where to draw the line between emulation and appropriation, Alabama Shakes seem to understand that true authenticity comes from adding originality to influence, from blending styles together to come up with something new.
In any case, “Sound and Color” is only three months old, and the band is currently touring the whole country in support of it. They’ve got a lot going on at the moment, and if you’re smart, you’ll start getting privy to at least some of it.
You can find more of Nick’s writing here.
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