Customer Reviews

Power in the Blood

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So you like music, huh? You're picky too, eh? You say you like a little country, a dab of electronica, some crazy-cool techno, acid jazz, rock AND the blues!!!??? Well, why not listen to all of them at the same time? Alabama 3 can help you do just that, my little friend!! This disc has everything you'd ever want readily available to you, the demanding listener.

If you're not listening to Alabama 3 (A3 in the U.S.) you are definitely missing out on some amazingly original and refreshing music. This is the best "NEW" stuff I've heard in maybe 10 years. Thank goodness for "The Sopranos" which turned me on to the band(theme song).

These guys don't even fit into a typical genre . . . we might need to invent one just for them. From the intense beats of the title track to the gospel beauty of REHAB, this album (and all of their albums) are filled with profound lyrics and a broad mixture of vocal and instrumental variety. One listen and you'll be ordering all of their albums.

Power in the Blood is my least favorite album by this band. Having grown up in the south and in a gospel church most of my life, I loved the fusion of music styles on the first two albums. Power, is more of a pure house flavor, and Im not a big fan of house. Alas, I am an Alabama 3 fan and I have both the 1 CD England version and the US 'A3" 2CD album of Power, that has the 2ed CD Acoustic Power. It was worth it for these cool country flavored tunes from their albums.
Id do it again.

A3's Power in the Blood is a retrenchment from the straight on blues of the murky La Peste back to the country-tinged electronica of Exile on Coldharbour Lane. Though there's a sense of musical déjà vu to the tracks, this initial impression dissipates in the presence of relaxed grooves and Rob Spragg, Jake Black, and Piers Marsh's increasingly complex positivism. Spragg's frayed vocals sound like late-period Dylan hotfooting through the disco. The ragga lilts, the soulful background sisters, the movie soundtrack washes - each add to the subtle power of a band exploring (as opposed to exploiting) its sound. If all you know is their Sopranos theme song "Woke Up This Morning" (included here on a separate EP acoustic version), and you like it, there's plenty more here to turn your crank.

A3 has done it again. Their first album, "Exile on Coldharbour Lane," was a western-gospel inspired acid house party album, a blossoming transufsion of sparkling wit and musical genius. Their second album, "La Peste," was a darker, earthier treatise on pain, regret, and hope. "Power in the Blood," their third album, mixes the country harmonics and electro-house frequencies of the one with the crooning prison-cell flavor of the other, making for a product that is soulfully liquid but buzzing with dance-floor energy.

As always, the lyrics are rather political (in some cases, their message is almost too weighty to take -- see "Lord Have Mercy"), but this rarely gets in the way of their remarkably unique sound. As before, they slide between beautiful extremes, offering up uncut house with "Strobe Life" and acoustic spiritualism with "Let The Caged Bird Sing." There is the wickedly funny ("Yellow Rose"), the playfully ironic ("R.E.H.A.B."), the incriminating ("Woody Guthrie"), and the delightfully dark ("Power In The Blood").

The blend is wickedly sharp as usual. Their mix of soothing prarie psalms with the sneering static of hard house is something I never get tired of, a combo that lights a fire behind and beneath each of the songs. A3 is still belting out the beats, and they're still doing it in a way you have very likely never heard of before.

The outlaw cousins of electronica have returned with what is the musical equivalant of a mug full of bourbon. Intense, heavy, deeply satisifying and not for everyone. For thouse who enjoyed the previous two, this is an excellent addition to the series. Haveing a bonus disk along with it is a nice touch.
Cheers, to those who talk Jackson Pollock and walk Tony Soprano

My favorite band, just sorry it is in the UK and I'm in Texas. If you never heard of them, check them out, they are hard to classify, but they rock, and have the best fans in the world. (Just go to a Brixton Jam and you will find out!)

One of Alabama3's lesser works, in my opinion. It lacks the really hard driving beat of its predecessors, but nevertheless, not bad. Be prepared for some left-wing lyrics, though.