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10.0
75336
10.0 |
State
Alabama Shakes have done enough on these twelve tracks to establish a standard for peers to follow
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9.0
75338
9.0 |
The Digital Fix
This is not the Alabama Shakes you know and love. What it is is far more subtle, but also the sound of a band knocking it out of the park
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9.0
75330
9.0 |
PopMatters
Each 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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9.0
75274
9.0 |
Exclaim
It's a deliberately weird record, but authentically weird; it's chaotic yet cohesive, full of sound, colour and unshakable vision
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8.4
75568
8.4 |
Paste Magazine
Sound & Color is a ballsy sophomore LP that that shocks, surprises and usually satiates
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8.4
80053
8.4 |
Earbuddy
Shakes hold true to their sound, while embracing current trends to great success
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8.1
75360
8.1 |
Pitchfork
This is stadium soul with one eye peeking toward another galaxy while hands and feet and throats desperately try to suss out life here on Earth
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8.0
75310
8.0 |
All Music
They 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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8.0
75342
8.0 |
The 405
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
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8.0
75292
8.0 |
FasterLouder
There’s so much sound and colour on Sound and Color that it will take a few listens to properly get used to it
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8.0
75214
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Shakes. Rattles. Rolls. Even more fun starts here
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8.0
75223
8.0 |
The Independent
Brims with the confident ambition of a band discovering and exploring exactly what they’re capable of
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8.0
75237
8.0 |
The Observer
A record with expanded, kaleidoscopic horizons
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8.0
75244
8.0 |
DIY
Notes may be reached, riffs rinsed, stop-start moments choreographed, but nothing’s being reached for, on appearance, at least – it’s all so brilliantly effortles
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8.0
75263
8.0 |
Slant Magazine
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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8.0
75138
8.0 |
musicOMH
It’s a surprising, hugely satisfying trip from a transformed band
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8.0
75141
8.0 |
NME
Whereas their debut was cast in sepia hues and downhome earthiness, its follow-up is a more kaleidoscopic affair
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8.0
75142
8.0 |
Q
One senses this is a band about to rise, elegantly, to the next level. Print edition only
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8.0
75144
8.0 |
Uncut
Expanding on the garage-soul template with a rich, spacious production. Print edition only
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8.0
75161
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
Alabama Shakes have an innate understanding of sweet, easy melodies, an inner Burt Bacharach hidden beneath their southern rootsiness, and their second album romps home on the back of it
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8.0
75181
8.0 |
NOW
Sound & Color avoids the sophomore slump by packing a sense of purpose into its 12 sleek yet gritty soul tracks
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7.5
75295
7.5 |
Pretty Much Amazing
This record is impossible to dislike
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7.5
75140
7.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
While Boys & Girls seemed to crawl out of its creators fully formed, Sound & Color feels like it might require a longer gestation period. It is both brilliant and uneven. It defies expectations without disrupting the status quo
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7.5
75339
7.5 |
Consequence Of Sound
Boys & Girls fired the warning shot three years ago. Sound & Color continues the momentum, one holy wail at a time
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7.0
75366
7.0 |
Spin
Rather than resting on the laurels of our expectations, Alabama Shakes manage to make roots-rock a surprise again
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7.0
75332
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
This is a weirder, woozier, fiercer and sexier record than their debut in nearly every way
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7.0
75148
7.0 |
Drowned In Sound
There’s not really a duff track here, and Brittany Howard can wring a killer chorus and a whole therapy-session of emotional beats out of ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ if she wanted to
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7.0
75139
7.0 |
The Music
Not really risk-taking stuff, but maybe just them having more confidence in what they’re about, and what they can do musically
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6.7
75306
6.7 |
A.V. Club
Going in different directions—even too many at once—proves that Alabama Shakes have the fearlessness and skill of a band with much more to say
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6.5
75396
6.5 |
Under The Radar
While it lacks the instant-gratification of Boys and Girls, Sound & Color is nevertheless a prime example of how an old genre can still enthral
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6.0
75143
6.0 |
Mojo
Less visceral than before, this one’s a quintessential grower. Print edition only
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6.0
75209
6.0 |
The Guardian
Not all their experiments work, but it’s hard not to be infected by the excitement when they do
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