POP/ROCK
Brittany Howard, "Jaime" (ATO)
Howard's ascent as the powerhouse singer-guitarist and driving force in the band Alabama Shakes appeared to be a dream-come-true scenario. Yet despite the acclaim that greeted the group's garage-rock-meets-soul testifying of "Boys & Girls" (2012) and the more expansive "Sound & Color" (2015), she felt something was lacking.
Her solo debut breaks ground sonically and lyrically. It's more personal and daring, steeped in '60s and '70s soul-funk-R&B but with a rules-are-meant-to-be-broken twist. She often treats her voice like an instrument, unafraid to smudge or even bury it in a stew of avant-noise and psychedelic textures.
Howard animates a childhood crush for a girl in the yearning ballad "Georgia," explores her relationship with God (it's complicated) on "He Loves Me" and, most strikingly, describes the hardships of growing up biracial in the rural South on the harrowing "Goat Head."
The arrangements are just as bold, and occasionally disorienting. On the deceptively languid "Tomorrow," the dreamy vocals give way to an urgently funky call-and-response section evoking a Parliament-Funkadelic jam. On "Short and Sweet," her idiosyncratic phrasing, rapturous tone and stripped-down vulnerability conjure Nina Simone. "Run to Me" folds its message of reassurance inside an ominous, reverberating soundscape.
The track's disquieting beauty counterpoints the unlikely anthem "13th Century Metal." Over twitchy Morse-code keyboards and chaotic drums, Howard lays out a social contract for the "brothers and sisters" with whom she shares the planet. But it's not larded with "we are the world" platitudes. Instead, as with much of this revelatory album, it's also personal. "Just try and do the best you can today," she reminds herself. "No matter where you've been."
Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune
Tool, "Fear Inoculum" (RCA)
