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Apr 20, 2015The weirder moments--the molten strings and xylophones--redefine the band as a powerful and original force.
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Apr 22, 2015Each passage on Sound and Color feels organic, like it pushed its way out of southern soil or floated into someone’s mind on a back porch breeze.
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Apr 17, 2015It's a deliberately weird record, but authentically weird; it's chaotic yet cohesive, full of sound, colour and unshakable vision.
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Oct 2, 2015Sophomore triumph Sound & Color aims higher.
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Apr 28, 2015Ultimately, Sound & Color is a ballsy sophomore LP that shocks, surprises and usually satiates.
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Apr 23, 2015Sound & Color is not an electronic record. But it is strange and mystical and unexpected.
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Apr 24, 2015Howard’s voice is at its best when doing that kind of Arethra/Irma Thomas-ish stuff, and where the band uses simple dynamics, rather than density, to showcase the song.
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Apr 22, 2015Quite simply, Sound & Color isn't an album to Tidal or play off've some 'device', it's one to sit down and listen to in its entirety before happily handing down through the ages like a sweaty bag of Werther's.
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Apr 21, 2015Sound & Color makes clear this success was not a fluke. This is the sound of a band that’s in it for the long haul, amplifying what worked the first time, and stretching in new directions to challenge both the performers and their listeners.
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Apr 21, 2015Sometimes the rhythms skitter and stutter; sometimes they throb, or soothe. More often than anything, they surprise and intrigue.
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Apr 21, 2015The new mix, as well as the broader melodies, lets the group escape the dreaded “retro” tag. But it’s the stun-gun effect of Howard’s vocals that puts the Shakes in a class of their own. She’s today’s most volatile singer, the one most prone to erupt when you least expect it.
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Apr 20, 2015They play Southern soul-rock in an era where the past is indistinguishable from the present, and how the band interlaces the old and the new on Sound & Color feels startlingly fresh.
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Apr 20, 2015[Brittany Howard's] performance only confirms that she's the kind of pop vocal talent that only comes along a few times in a generation, while Sound & Color as a whole is proof that Alabama Shakes have got the chops to be a lot more than Muscle Shoals revivalists.
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Apr 20, 2015Sound & Color brims with the confident ambition of a band discovering and exploring exactly what they’re capable of.
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Apr 20, 2015You can only marvel at where they will go next.
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Apr 17, 2015Notes may be reached, riffs rinsed, stop-start moments choreographed, but nothing’s being reached for, on appearance, at least--it’s all so brilliantly effortless.
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Apr 16, 2015A full three years later, Sound & Color avoids the sophomore slump by packing a sense of purpose into its 12 sleek yet gritty soul tracks.
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Apr 14, 2015It’s a surprising, hugely satisfying trip from a transformed band.
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Apr 14, 2015Their musical range may not yet be as expansive as her vocal one, but any group who are able to segue from the psychotropic ’70s soul of ‘Guess Who’ to the proto-punk sturm und drang of ‘The Greatest’ are clearly no one-trick ponies.
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Apr 14, 2015What Sound & Color does best is hard to describe any other way: The music chugs, boogies, churns and rolls. Among rock music of its kind, it's one of the most muscular collections in some time, yet it accomplishes this by hardly even flexing.
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Q MagazineApr 13, 2015If there is an immediate impression here it is one of polish and precision. [May 2015, p.104]
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UncutApr 13, 2015Disparate but cohesive. [May 2015, p.69]
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Apr 22, 2015Without pretense or irony, Alabama Shakes carry on a vibrant rock ‘n’ roll tradition with psychedelic twists and turns that keep listeners curious about what’s next. Boys & Girls fired the warning shot three years ago. Sound & Color continues the momentum, one holy wail at a time.
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Apr 21, 2015Alabama Shakes don’t rock the boat necessarily, but by refining the formula, they’ve proven they can succeed with a model that has become all too easy to fail with in recent years.
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Apr 17, 2015The drama is all in the way she uses her voice; the key instrument on an album brimming with new Shakes sounds and colors.
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Apr 13, 2015It is both brilliant and uneven. It defies expectations without disrupting the status quo.
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Apr 22, 2015The desire to show subtlety and restraint is quickly overtaken by their visceral need to go buck wild (“Gimme All Your Love” is the best example of that roller coaster). While that pacing becomes a crack in the album’s otherwise polished veneer, it can easily be overlooked once you’re sucked in by all of the sounds and colors.
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Apr 21, 2015Howard's lyrics tend to dodge specifics, and at times they feel disappointingly vague. But the ache, frustration, hunger, wonder and bliss in her idiosyncratic hurricane of a voice--magnified by music of new imagination and detail--stand out more clearly than ever.
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Apr 16, 2015At its best Sound & Color is very strong indeed.... Elsewhere it can be a little business-as-usual.
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Apr 21, 2015Sound & Color drops some of that urgency in favor of a hefty dose of experimentation, and while the results are intriguing, the record can’t help but meander a bit.
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Apr 16, 2015While it lacks the instant-gratification of Boys And Girls, Sound And Color is nevertheless a prime example of how an old genre can still enthrall. [Apr-May 2015, p.80]
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Apr 24, 2015Singer Brittany Howard’s vocals are as pliable as ever, a high pitched squeal one moment, an irascible growl the next. Yet, in this case, it’s the band--bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg and drummer Steve Johnson--that have evolved most this time around, providing a shifting set of circumstance varied in both tone and texture.
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MojoApr 21, 2015Less visceral than before, this one's a quintessential grower. [May 2015, p.91]
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Apr 16, 2015Not all their experiments work, but it’s hard not to be infected by the excitement when they do.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 116 out of 128
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Mixed: 4 out of 128
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Negative: 8 out of 128
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Apr 23, 2015
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Apr 21, 2015
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Apr 22, 2023