I’ve always been one to go, oh, I’ll just eat this one it’ll be okay.”Īs the band blazes away on the soul-rock rave-up “I Need Never Get Old,” the visceral “Howling at Nothing” and the supercharged “Trying So Hard Not to Know” (key line: “Who gives a damn and very few can”), which open the album with a sustained outpouring of torrid intensity, Rateliff is opening himself up emotionally as well as physically, the raw grit in his voice conveying anguish and hope in equal measure. I’m trying to be a better communicator, but it’s horribly awkward-it’s awful-to tell somebody something you know is gonna hurt their feelings. It’s taken me a long time to figure that out.
I’m not a great communicator in my personal life, so it’s funny to be writing songs that say the things that I’m never very good at saying. “These songs are about the struggles I’ve had in my life-drinking too much, that kind of crap,” he says with characteristic candor, punctuating the admission with a rueful laugh.
The place where Rateliff is coming from is intensely real and intimate. The difference between the two albums is that the Nights Sweats’ funkiness insulates the starkly confessional nature of Rateliff’s songs while at the same time underscoring their emotional extremes. But when you delve beneath the rawboned surface of the new album’s wall-rattling presentation, with its deep-gut grooves, snaky guitars, churning Hammond and irresistible horns, you’ll find that same sensitive, introspective dude, who bravely tells it like it is, breaking through his reticence to expose often harsh truths about the life he’s lived, the people he’s hurt and the despair he’s struggled with. Those who were beguiled by In Memory of Loss, Rateliff’s folky, bittersweet 2010 Rounder album, will be in for an initial shock when they spin Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. But as this gifted multi-instrumentalist honors the legacy of the legendary Memphis label, he’s also setting out into audacious new territory. So it’s entirely fitting that the self-titled album will bear the iconic logo of Stax Records, because at certain moments Rateliff seems to be channeling soul greats like Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. You don’t just listen to this record-you experience it. This stunning work isn’t just soul stirring, it’s also soul baring, and the combination is absolutely devastating to behold. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats practically explodes with deep, primal and ecstatic soulfulness.
0 kommentar(er)
