ALABAMA SHAKES Schallplatten & CDs

Review: American rock band Alabama Shakes - fronted by lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard - acclaimed debut long player Boys & Girls is 10 years old this year. To mark the occasion, Rough Trade Records commemorate it with a bumper two-disc deluxe edition. Rolling Stone called the original one of the best albums of 2012, and after it entered the charts at number one it went on to get Platinum certification and several GRAMMY nominations. This version features all the original tracks along with new, unreleased photos and an additional 11 live tracks from a performance on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic."

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.