Album Review: Alabama 3 - "Step 13"

 

Still very much out there two decades on from their inception, this is Alabama 3's first album since the untimely passing of frontman Reverend D Wayne Love. Hand on heart, they're one of those bands who my knowledge of is a bit patchy - I know the obvious songs like Woke Up This Morning and Ain't Goin' To Goa and had a couple of albums back in the day but this is probably the first time in nearly two decades I've listened to the band's music.

Opening track Whacked is a good start to the album with its pulsing electric drumbeat, steel guitar and Larry Love's gravelly vocals about how everybody's searching for that perfect high combining to create something pretty damn good. Yolanda meanwhile sees Love telling tales of his musical education in Brixton over a heady mix of beats and slide guitar.

As you'd expect from the Alabama 3, this is an impressively varied album from the gospel stylings of The Lord Stepped In and Every Time I See A River to the frenetic Primal Scream style riffs of Petronella Says. Lyrically it's wide-ranging too, varying from the call to arms of Rise Up Brother Rise to the dark heroin laments of Tranquilise Yourself Britannia and the sinister If They Ring Your Bell. The final track Someone Somewhere is a touching tribute to D Wayne over mournful piano and signs this one off in fine style.

Step 13 is an album which sees Alabama 3 exorcising the demons of the last few years in fine style with an album which grips you from the start and refuses to let go. With plenty of new tricks to notice with each repeated listen, this is a very worthy comeback from Brixton's finest. Well worth your investigation.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)