Don't miss out on this one......
L. Wood | SC | 02/24/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an excellent CD, I love Larry Love's black velvet voice! My favorites are Sad Eyed Lady, Wade into the Water, Hotel California and Cocaine Killed My Community, but all the cuts are excellent."
La Peste rocks
Patrick Mokrane | Vancouver, BC Canada | 01/16/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Alabama 3 are one of the best bands around , they rock , great lyrics , sense of humour , and you could even dance to it should you be so inclined ."
Moodier and Marvelous
Mark Eremite | Seoul, South Korea | 06/27/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Alabama 3 (or, if you want to avoid a lawsuit, A3), is the perfect band for people who like the idea of country, but not necessarily the sound. While their first album, Exile on Coldharbour Lane, was a crafty and humourous mix of genres (you've got everything from gospel to blues to house to, yes, country), this album tones things down quite a bit, and adds shadows to A3's usually bright tones.
In most cases, those shadows highten the edge of the lyrics and the music, especially on the first three tracks: "Too Sick to Pray," "Mansion on the Hill," and "Sad-Eyed Lady of Lowlife." Their special acidic blend of country includes just a dash of gleefully grim hip-hop, and in spite of the gloomy vocals, these songs get the blood pumping.
"Cocaine (Killed My Community)" is the closest the band comes to the driving pulse of straight-up electronica (the mural of sounds that make up the backdrop to this song incorporate the noises that typically accompany drug use, specifically cocaine), and it is also one of the few moments on this album where the group's ambiguous (and satirical?) spirituality jumps into the foreground (a line from the chorus says that they "live in the light of the Lord"). "Walking In My Sleep" is also a heavily digital melody with some deliciously creepy lyrics and a thrum-thick bass line.
Some of the band's lighter and lankier side (the side revealed most acutely in the previous album) shows up in the final track, "Sinking," which is a story-song that borrows heavily from Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The final minutes of this tune are bright and rich and always put a smile on my face.
This otherwise wonderful and brilliant album isn't without its flaws, however. Their cover of "Hotel California" is both unnecessary and rather grating. Likewise, the dark gloom and precise harmonies that energize the rest of the record seem strained and abused in the over-emotive track, "Thrills."
In spite of these small imperfections, this is still a highly creative bit of work. Moodier than some may like, but no less well-played, and notable, if for nothing else, then for its inventive, inspired, and creative blend of humour, energy, and plain, old-fashioned musical skill."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
