To hear Jennifer Nettles tell it, it’s a brand new day in Sugarland. Despite winning multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM awards—and selling more than 8 million records—the country-music duo of Nettles and Kristian Bush is embracing a creative rebirth, a musical awakening that permeates their adventurous fourth album, The Incredible Machine.
“We are in a place of discovery,” Jennifer says. “It is the essence of who we are as people in this band. There is never a moment where we think, ‘This is good enough.’ There’s always a place for growth.”
The Review
Sugarland’s new The Incredible Machine album could just as easily be called The Stretched Boundaries. Borrowing as much from Queen’s Freddie Mercury and Jason Mraz as they do from Patsy Cline, Sugarland has unveiled an album that further pushes the needle left from anything resembling modern country. Machine is like a Cirque de Soleil event. It’s a big show with lots of sparkle and sizzle, loosely held together with stories that aren’t especially lyrically profound. It’s complete with an interlude song and prologue song ends to further cement the analogy.
Sugarland band mates Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush instead rely on unique production, instrumentation and most importantly, creative lyrical delivery throughout the album to differentiate it from nearly everything else in the marketplace.
They have to get some kudos for finding a sound all of their own. In this digital age where music is as abundant as it ever has, developing a musical style that hasn’t been done before is near impossible. Sugarland has also never been one to play it safe. Whether it’s a concert cover of the Bee Gees, covering a 1980’s pop classic like “Life In A Northern Town” for country radio, or duets with Jon Bon Jovi, they’ve pushed the envelope since they became a cultural sensation.
Where The Incredible Machine is different from their previous albums is the more dramatic production. Certainly the tempo is upped along on nearly every track. There are big drums, tons of percussion, much more energy and many songs written to be arena anthems. Missing is the naked tenderness of previous songs like “Stay.” Almost by design, track after track seem to be designed to get people on their feet jumping up and down. What results is a consecutive track tempo that comes off at times as almost frantic. But hard as I tried not to, damn if I wasn’t tapping my toe along the way.
The album’s first track “All We Are” opens up sounding like the opening of St. Elmo’s Fire and then evolves into a wide array of genres. There’s reggae on “Stuck Like Glue,” hip hop lyrical skipping on “Every Girl Like Me” and a little U2 feeling embedded on “Incredible Machine.” Nettles even channels Debbie Harry’s voice and Gwen Stefani shoutbacks on “Find The Beat Again.”
Beyond the pop production, vocals take second priority across the album. Nettles wide-mouthed big-voiced delivery can be an acquired taste. Perhaps no other modern country star’s voice has a stronger love/hate relationship with different country music fans. Bush plays a slightly bigger role on vocals on this album versus previous ones. When used separately, his Bon Jovi/Joe Cocker breathless and gravelly delivery makes a terrific contrast with Nettles. When they harmonize like on the title track, he gets lost and adds a grainy texture to Nettles that’s not nearly as strong as her solo delivery.
Overall, the album is a somewhat fascinating case study in what happens when two very skilled musicians abandon all genre historical paradigms and let their own pop-leaning whims control the direction and production. It’s also exhausting and over-produced in areas, trying much too hard to pound a beat into our subconscious. Now… how do I get that foot from tapping?
Sounds Like:
Good 1980's Pop
The Verdict:
Three Stars Out Of Five
No comments:
Post a Comment