Soledad Brothers - Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move
(Estrus)
The blues can come in many shapes and sizes, many forms and fashions. Whether it's gritty two-chord slide guitar stomps or quiet mellotron-infused tearjerkers, the Soledad Brothers are ready to try it all. They demonstrate this willingness by filling their latest with blues that show both focus and breadth, touching on many styles over the course of the record without ever losing the flow of a long-player.
Johnny Walker, guitar and vox, leads off by crowning himself a "Prince Among Thieves" on a slow-burner that sets the tone for what's to come. This is followed by "Prodigal Stones Blues," a tune so derivative of a well-known Rolling Stones riff that you expect a chord change that never comes. Yet the Soledads give the lick a fresh twist, inspiring hips to swagger and shake in response. But the real barnburner comes on "Break 'Em on Down" as Walker declares, "My name is Johnny, you'll deal with me now," before lighting into a churning stomp that never fails to elicit a reaction from my timekeeping feet. Place that song right next to "Michigan Line" as highlights of the album, another jam best played on repeat while ripping down a back road with one shoe on the gas and the other pounding the hell out of the floor mats. Walker also does his best Jon Spencer on the cut ".32 Blues" by taking the time to do shout-outs to several people before sending special thanks to "all y'all who bought the record." However, the Blues Explosion are on the rock end of the blues-rock spectrum, whereas the Soledad Brothers are rooted squarely on the blues side. They rarely stray from a 12-bar format, but that doesn't prevent them from excelling.
As a whole, the album provides respite after the songs with punch, adding to the power of the stronger numbers. There are several instrumental interludes that pepper the record, but they never seem to detract from the vocal tracks that carry most of the weight. Often spoken in the same sentence as their Detroit compatriots, The White Stripes, the Soledad Brothers have a similar appeal but are consistently more bluesy than rocky. They are far more likely to groove than to grope, more likely to stammer than to shout. Recommended if you like bluesy JSBX, White Stripes, or slide guitar.
|
