Posts Tagged ‘Sea Of Noise’

St PAUL and the BROKEN BONES – ” Sea Of Noise ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 10, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

St Paul Broken Bones 2016

While “Sea Of Noise”—the follow-up to their widely hailed debut, 2014 ‘s Half The City—doesn’t shirk from offering commentary on society’s failings, it doesn’t revel in them either. To the contrary, it attempts to rally its listeners to a higher calling where intelligence and inspiration take precedence over name-calling and accusations. Singer and frontman Paul Janeway exhorts his listeners to find that higher purpose that great music strives to attain. Like another of soul music’s revered roots, the rousing gospel sounds that gave congregations reason to look heavenward, St. Paul & The Broken Bones use their effusive, ecstatic revelry to rouse their audiences and encourage them to get caught up in a kind of aural delirium.

There’s a real soul music is named as such. It comes from the soul. It soothes the soul. And Birmingham, Ala.’s best octet St. Paul & The Broken Bones has soul for sure. Frontman Paul Janeway shimmies and prances in the most impressively flamboyant suits and shoes and climbs on drum kits and speakers too tall to crawl down from without assistance, all while delivering lines in a tenor/falsetto with religious-like fervor. But, as this is a band affair, The Broken Bones never fracture or falter. The horn section rings in all the right places. Bassist and co-founder Jesse Phillips stays right in step with drummer Andrew Lee. And lead guitarist Browan Lollar adds a rock ‘n’ roll touch in his solos that’s exclusive to the band’s live sets. When all forces combine, whether Janeway wails about broken hearts or civil rights, St. Paul & The Broken Bones reach a place in their audiences that can’t come from any place other than the soul.

This Birmingham, Alabama, soul act toggle the traits typically associated with men or women, with St. Paul Janeway (not actually canonized, but give it time) lending gospel testimony to the different ways we can rescue and support and, sadly, leave each other. When he declares, “I’ll be your woman,” it sounds like a monumental act of empathy and compassion, proving that soul music doesn’t need a revival with bands like the Broken Bones around.

St. PAUL and the BROKEN BONES – ” Flow With It (You Got Me Feeling Like) “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

St. Paul & The Broken Bones.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones roared onto the soul-revival scene in 2014 on the strength of frontman Paul Janeway, whose earth-shaking vocals are matched only by his irrepressible energy as a performer. After a whirlwind couple years since the band’s debut, “Half The City” a time that included a few dates as The Rolling Stones’ opening act — the Birmingham, Alabama., outfit has shored up its sound and turned to weighty lyrical themes for its second full-length record, “Sea Of Noise”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8YowjS7Ebs

“Flow With It (You Got Me Feeling Like)” is the second single from “Sea Of Noise”, and it’s a fine example of the band’s maturation. Having grown to an eight-piece, the group fuels its fire with an expanded horn section and percussion that evokes the Motown sound. (Elsewhere on Sea Of Noise, its members call on the string charts of veteran Memphis arranger Lester Snell — not to mention the skyscraping voices of the Tennessee Mass Choir, recorded in Studio A at what was once Stax Records.)

St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Sea Of Noise
More elaborate orchestration aside, the gritty burr of the Southern soul that informs St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ music is undeniable. In “Flow With It,” that’s most evident in the heavily grooving breakdown after the second chorus. Janeway lets the band bubble up and simmer over as he riffs on the curiously ambiguous line, “I wanna feel.” It’s hard not to feel something — release, maybe, or a cleansing of sorts — when everything comes to a heart-stopping pause, then whooshes back in at a rapid boil a beat later.

On one level, “Flow With It” seems to deal with a bedroom argument and the strain felt within an intimate relationship that’s fraying at the seams. But considered in light of contentious times, politically and socially, the song takes on another layer of meaning. “We ain’t gotta fight,” Janeway pleads, sounding like he could be addressing a partner or a society in need of the salve that soul music offers. “Let’s just flow with it.”