Artist: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Album: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Label: Island
Release: August 2nd 2010
Reviewed By: Sam Holloway
The fourth album from Vermont-based Grace Potter and her backing band the Nocturnals is a raunchy, rocky affair: a mixture of slow-burning Southern soul rock ballads and faster, gutsier numbers. The band have been gaining momentum in the US and Canada, with appearances on several of the major chat shows and their music being used in a number of hit US dramas. But here in the UK, they’re much more of an unknown, and clearly the band hope to hit big with this summer release.
So what’s the music like? Think of a female-led Credence Clearwater Revival, throw in a dash of Tina Turner (in her days with husband Ike) - and then file off the rough edges. What you’re left with is a powerful sound, sure enough. Catherine Popper’s bass provides a strong backing, with Hammond and dirty rhythm guitars to boot. It has all the right ingredients, but somehow misses the mark through being just a little too polished, too refined.
That can probably be put down to the work of producer Mark Batson, who is more usually noted for his work with artists like Dr Dre, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. Anyone familiar with Potter’s earlier works will notice a definite change in sound and production values: the raw, bluesy edge has gone (along with the acoustic numbers), to be replaced with a more subtle, poppy feeling.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. The opening track ‘Paris’ is punchy, and even the inevitable chorus of ‘oooh la la’ doesn’t feel like a cliché, it could have sat easily on Sheryl Crow’s early albums, while ‘That Phone’ has a great drive to it and would sit well on the Radio 2 playlist, along with the slower ballad ‘Colors’. The tracks that miss are the wailing rockers, like ‘Hot Summer Night’, which attempt to capture Tina Turner’s power but end up sounding over-produced instead.
Overall, this album finds Grace Potter and her Nocturnals at a junction: will they go down the road of polished pop, or will they return to their blues roots? It?s a gamble either way. In the meantime, enjoy these tracks for what they are: a decent set of Southern soulful rock tunes played by a band who are clearly out to have a good time.
Listen to more from Grace Potter & The Nocturnals at Myspace
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Says buy tickets then none so guessing that...
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