Search - Futurebirds :: Hampton's Lullaby

Who needs the Kings of Leon?

M. Freitas | Warren, RI | 08/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...Don't get me wrong I love the first 2 KOL albums. I loved the first 2 Band of Horses albums. However, the Futurebirds have done with Hampton's Lullaby what both bands wish they did with their 3rd albums on their very first. Much in the vein of My Morning Jacket's first 3 albums this release is filled with joyous and dark southern soul. It's reverb laden guitars and harmonized vocals mix with the rhythmic grittiness in a way that makes you feel like you are being hugged by a grizzly bear smelling like a campfire. But it doesn't end there. Flashes of Dinosaur Jr., Broken Social Scene are heard on the triumphant "Yur Not Dead," and the country expansiveness of "Ski Chalet," never gives up on the bands' Athens drenched roots. The pedal steel flourishes are a standard for almost each track, as is banjo and mandolin but nothing overwhelms, they all add to the delicate beauty accented on each song. If you like all of the bands I've listed in this review you'll know what you're in for. DL their self-titled EP if you have doubts (it's free) as it follows the same medium of the album. Favorite tracks so far: Johnny Utah, APO and Happy Animals. One reviewer on this world wide web compared one of those 3 songs as sounding eerily Bon-Joviish; don't listen to that reivewer, there is nothing on this album that sounds that way. This album is well worth it."