Provogue (label)
18 October 2019 (released)
15 October 2019
When a band comprises three members of the Black Crowes and two from Hookah Brown it is going to have some serious credentials and their previous album ‘High Water 1’ released last year definitely showed off their talents.
This album though takes the story a step further and I was completely blown away by the album.
There is a ‘70’s retro feel to much of the album but of the good kind.
Drawing influences from Led Zeppelin, The Stones, The Band, Little Feat, The Doobie Brothers and others but with a really fresh sound and feel to their music, this is one hell of an album.
The album kicks off with ‘Sooner Or Later’ and it hits you full in the face with a massive sound loaded with massive drums and John Hogg’s vocals emerging from the mix. Between Rich Robinson’s and Marc Ford’s guitars they song goes through its phases, building and expanding into a blast of rock fury. A symphony in 3 and a half minutes!
The music just rolls on with ‘Gimme Something’ hitting a Sly Stone type of groove and then track after track of superb music with all the flight and variation a truly great band is capable of.
Personal favourites include the sublime ‘In Here’ with stunning piano from Matt Slocum, horns doing their job way down in the mix but completely filling the soundscape and ‘Lost Boy’, much more restrained than the rest of the material but really hitting the mark with a great grizzled vocal and whispering organ.
I’ve probably listened to the album from start to finish a dozen times and every time it grows on me a little more. I think this will be one of my most listened to albums of 2019 and I’m still enjoying the heck out of it.
