ALABAMA SHAKES Schallplatten & CDs

Review: RECOMMENDED
It was two in two for Alabama Shakes when they first unveiled this bonafide swamp rock masterpiece. Released in 2015, Sound & Color took the blueprint laid out with Boys & Girls and then kicked up into fifth gear. It's soul. It's blues. It's sweat-soaked funk. Most importantly, though, it's the kind of record that keeps giving the more you listen, sounding equally at home in the 1950s as it does the 2010s.

It's hard to really put into words the level of husky, pained, heart-on-sleeve musicality at the core of this record. Brittany Howard's voice might never again sound as utterly distraught and reflective, pained and somehow filled with hope for a brighter day. Individual readings aside, this is among the finest blues records to land this century, and ranks up there with some of the greats of the 20th, so don't sleep on this edition complete with closing tracks recorded live at the legendary Capitol Studios.