St Paul and the Broken Bones from the State of Alabama,
St. Paul & The Broken Bones is not a band that’s easily ignored. The Birmingham-based sextet gets in your face—literally—during shows, and manages to transfer that that intensity to each of the 12 songs on their debut LP “Half The City”. With strong roots in the Pentecostal church, frontman Paul Janeway seems to deliver entire sermons in three-and-a-half-minute opuses throughout record. He narrates entire parables like “Grass is Greener” and “Like A Mighty River” in his emotive tenor that evokes both preacher and crooner. And the built-in, two-man brass band arrangements add depth, rhythm and soul to “Half The City”, especially on tracks like “Broken Bones & Pocket Change” and “Sugar Dyed.”
Inspired by funk and R&B acts like Prince, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, St. Paul & The Broken Bones understands the power music has to make you weep, dance and rejoice, sometimes all at the same time; each track on “Half The City” serves one or more of those roles. So while the band released its first EP, “Greetings from St. Paul & The Broken Bones”, in 2013, it’s this full-length debut that serves as the ultimate conversion for believers and heretics, alike.
The Fat Angel Sings 