Boys & Girls - Alabama Shakes
Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
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  1. The Independent (UK)
    Apr 5, 2012
    100
    Just a series of great, swampy soul grooves, fronted by the most arresting new voice you'll hear this year, and the kind of natural songwriting that seems to contain the entire history of Southern music within its staves.
  2. Paste Magazine
    Apr 10, 2012
    86
    Boys & Girls is best enjoyed not as an anachronism but as a fresh take on the sounds from a bygone era.
  3. Pitchfork
    Apr 9, 2012
    78
    A solid debut.
  4. Drowned In Sound
    Apr 5, 2012
    50
    In the cold light of day the album feels flat and utterly predictable.
  5. The Fly (UK)
    Apr 5, 2012
    60
    It's enough to hold the interest, although we'd prefer Alabama Shakes to capitalise on their more esoteric elements and cut out the cliches.
  6. American Songwriter
    Apr 26, 2012
    70
    While the result doesn't justify the buildup, there is no doubt that frontwoman Brittany Howard is a major talent.
  7. All Music Guide
    Apr 20, 2012
    70
    Their roots are just that--roots, not anchors, allowing the group to grow, often in unexpected and quietly thrilling ways.
  8. No Ripcord
    Apr 16, 2012
    50
    Perhaps ... the best way to describe Boys & Girls: unwilling to innovate or add anything new to its genre, preferring to remind us of the roots of rock instead of showing us what made the pioneers so great, a reminder of a past love instead of a new love for us to discover.
  9. Billboard.com
    Apr 16, 2012
    78
    Those who have witnessed the group's floor-shaking live shows might be a bit disarmed by the deliberately dense and lo-fi production of "Boys & Girls."
  10. Prefix Magazine
    Apr 16, 2012
    80
    The album encapsulates summers of falling asleep on porches, cicadas chirping periodically among the trees, shaking slightly from a passing breeze.
  11. Boston Globe
    Apr 12, 2012
    80
    This good old-fashioned rock and soul quartet make good on their buzz with a debut that not only shakes, but also rattles and rolls.
  12. Beats Per Minute (formerly One Thirty BPM)
    Apr 11, 2012
    70
    Boys & Girls is a short album that clocks in at 35-minutes over the course of 11 songs. But by the time it's done, you'll want to start it over again.
  13. The Boston Phoenix
    Apr 10, 2012
    75
    The great news is that even the bad news is good news: Alabama Shakes have a hell of a lot of growing to do, but even their slightest tunes pack a punch.
  14. Rolling Stone
    Apr 10, 2012
    70
    Howard's black-dirt gravitas holds it all together.
  15. Consequence of Sound
    Apr 10, 2012
    70
    Boys & Girls, is a profound submission, one which injects fresh life into the genre while maintaining its blazing spirit.
  16. New Musical Express (NME)
    Apr 10, 2012
    70
    In many ways Boys & Girls it is as note-perfect an album as you'll hear all year, yet it's also often perfectly inert.
  17. Los Angeles Times
    Apr 10, 2012
    88
    The Alabama Shakes' first album, Boys & Girls, is an electric jolt that anyone who loves blues-based rock music should track down immediately
  18. The A.V. Club
    Apr 10, 2012
    67
    Exciting as it can be, Boys & Girls could use just a little more shakin' going on.
  19. The Quietus
    Apr 10, 2012
    50
    Boys And Girls is a somewhat predictable trawl through the back catalogues of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Stax Records, Janis Joplin and the recorded output of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios amongst others, but with none of the grit, passion or emotion.
  20. The New York Times
    Apr 9, 2012
    70
    Compared to computer-tuned radio pop, or even the big-time pop-soul of a genuine singer like Adele, the Alabama Shakes sound raw-boned and proudly unprocessed.
  21. The Observer (UK)
    Apr 9, 2012
    80
    They not only shake but also rattle, roll and do everything else to ears and body that the most rumbustious soul-rock and roots music can.
  22. The Independent on Sunday (UK)
    Apr 9, 2012
    80
    Unrefined, unresigned, occasionally clunky, frequently obtuse but always, always fit to bust.
  23. Slant Magazine
    Apr 9, 2012
    60
    Boys & Girls is a fine album, full of sturdy Southern-fried blues performed with swagger and verve. As the proper debut for a band that's built its reputation on the fearless pandemonium of its live shows, however, Boys & Girls is curiously and deliberately subdued.
  24. PopMatters
    Apr 9, 2012
    90
    Boys & Girls is more than a debut album. It's an introduction to a band you thought you knew for years, but are just fortunate enough to meet now.
  25. musicOMH.com
    Apr 6, 2012
    60
    This is an album packed with promise but which tails off somewhat at the close.
  26. Chicago Tribune
    Apr 6, 2012
    75
    The rough-hewn production wouldn't pass muster on a major-label budget: amplifiers audibly hum, voices crack with emotion, a few bum notes crop up here and there. But this band is terrific all the same.
  27. BBC Music
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    Lyrics are route-one effective throughout, as you'd expect from an album called Boys & Girls, but the Shakes are not one-dimensional.
  28. Exclaim
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    The rawness of the band puts them in a different category than other soul revivalists like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, but the visceral quality of Boys & Girls gives Alabama Shakes an edge.
  29. NOW Magazine
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    Their talent and impossible-to-fake passion merit the sudden attention.
  30. The Guardian
    Apr 5, 2012
    60
    Boys & Girls feels slightly polite and artfully constructed, as if the rest of the band are too respectful of their influences to truly let rip.
  31. The Telegraph (UK)
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    [Even] if Alabama Shakes do nothing original, they strike classic poses with real guts.
  32. Mojo
    Apr 20, 2012
    40
    [Boy & Girls] casts Brittany as a soulful singer, but the album is more Xerox copy than feel and spirit based. [May 2012, p.86]
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  33. Q Magazine
    Apr 13, 2012
    80
    Alabama Shakes' nods to vocal giants past never overshadow the fact that their music has a raw, aggressive style that is completely their own. [May 2012, p.90]
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  34. Uncut
    Apr 6, 2012
    80
    Alabama Shakes are scarcely the first ornery yet soulful rock sound to have emerged from northern Alabama, but they're abundantly worthy bearers of the standard. [May 2012, p.73]
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. catcarlo
    7
    D’ogni tanto, di dischi come questo ce n’è (ne ho) bisogno. Dischi che esprimano calore, sudore e passione puntando dritti allo stomaco e rega regalando ravvivanti scariche di adrenalina. C’è un altro lato della medaglia, ovvio: l’ascoltatore sa esattamente cosa aspettarsi dietro ogni angolo, ma forse lì proprio per quello. Se possibile, le opposte considerazioni si accentuano quando si tratta di un lavoro d’esordio come quello di questo quartetto di Athens, nel nord dell’Alabama (dunque non in Georgia): il caso di rallegrarsi perché tra le giovani generazioni c’è comunque qualcuno che si incarica di tener alto il vessillo o arricciare il naso davanti a una non spiccata personalità che spinge a rispolverare ‘Cheap thrills’? Il secondo album di Big Brother and the Holding Company non citato a caso: ‘You ain’t alone’ uno degli episodi più incisivi di ‘Boys girls’, un perfetto distillato di southern rock e soul in cui Brittany Howard se la gioca per intensità con la Janis che fu. Peccato che il resto del programma non sia all’altezza, e non certo per colpa dell’aggressiva cantante, la cui vocalità calda e travolgente comunque l’asso vincente del gruppo: al contrario, le sonorità sono a volte un po’ troppo arrotondate, difetto che appare evidente in ‘I found you’, ma che toglie qualche potenzialità a ‘Hold on’ e ‘Hang loose’ brano, quest’ultimo, con ascendenze stonesiane che i vecchiacci avrebbero saputo ben altrimenti sporcare. Si tratta dei primi tre pezzi e la paura di trovarsi davanti a degli altri ‘Kings of leon’ (seppure con una voce infinitamente superiore) si allontana solo con l’aumentare della temperatura iniziato con ‘Rise to the sun’ e completato con la sullodata ‘You ain’t alone’. La seonda parte di disco alterna con sapienza pieni e vuoti e Howard, olte a continuare a essere efficace nei momenti più tirati, sa risultare vincente anche quando i ritmi rallentano: non tanto nella breve, acustica ‘Goin’ to the party’ (altro inchino jopliniano) quanto in belle ballate come ‘Heartbreaker’. Il resto del gruppo, guidato dalla chitarra di Zac la asseconda mischiando in dosi corrette rock, soul, rhythm ‘n’ blues e il risultato quella bella sensazione di cui scrivevo all’inizio. Malgrado non manchino i difetti, perciò il caso di vedere il bicchiere mezzo pieno anche perché pare che il disco non riesca a riprodurre la carica che il gruppo riesce a esprimere sul palco (considerazione che i filmati su youtube sembrano confermare): sta ai quattro, che suonano insieme da soli tre anni, la scelta tra il saper crescere mantenendo le promesse e l’adagiarsi nella riproposizione di fin troppo conosciuti clichè.… Full Review »
  2. agunsux
    8
    American blues-rock band. This is their debut album. Name taken from their hometown. But who would have thought that the vocalist is actually a girl named Brittany. She sounds like a broken hearted guy who drink too much whiskey when she sings. Janis Joplin would be proud of you, dear Brittany.… Full Review »
  3. mistaashraf
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. The Alabama Shakes are this year's band to check out. They're a small town band out of Alabama (as the name suggests) who really exploded at SXSW. Brittany Williams has a really strong voice and an even stronger stage presence. Each song on their record is engaging and she really pours her emotions onto the record. My favorite track is "Be Mine" but most people are familiar with "Hold On' or "Hang Loose". All in all, a great album for 2012.… Full Review »
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