Brittany Howard displays her encyclopaedic knowledge on her solo album, What Now. Photo / Getty Images
Brittany Howard displays her encyclopaedic knowledge on her solo album, What Now. Photo / Getty Images
Even within the expansive musical palette of Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes, their singer, guitarist and lyricist Brittany Howard seemed too talented to be contained.
An imposing figure with a commanding voice, she could nail a range of emotions in the Shakes’ rock’n’soul, Southern roots-rock and Prince-like funk.
After a digressionwith her rock band Thunderbitch, Howard’s inevitable solo career started with 2019′s frequently autobiographical Jaime, named after her sister who died as a teenager.
Jaime was consistently acknowledged as one of the best of that year, earned two Grammy nominations and other accolades, and in 2021, appeared in a remix edition by the likes of Childish Gambino, Michael Kiwanuka, Jungle and Laura Mvula.
Where Jaime addressed spirituality (He Loves Me), coming to terms with her sexuality (Georgia) and the euphoria of love (Stay High), it also dealt with rejection (Baby).
This new album deepens some of those themes but also finds her joyous on Another Day, a Rainbow Nation anthem proclaiming “be who we want and see who we like” with the chorus: “I am having the time of my life.”
She again taps the spirit of Paisley Park on the assertive title track – “I’ve been making plans that don’t include you any more … I ain’t sorry” – and Prince’s influence also drives the equally self-confident Power to Undo: “You have the power to undo everything that I want, but I won’t let you.”
The album displays her encyclopaedic musical knowledge: suggestions of 1970s Miles Davis hovering in the soulful, self-doubting ballad Samson; the smoky To Be Still might have come from a 1940s nightclub and Giorgio Moroder-like dance-floor beats propel Prove It To You.
The gospel influences on the opener Earth Sign set up the optimism heard elsewhere: “Out there, there’s a love waiting for me.”
Here, too, are slow-groove 1970s psychedelic soul (Patience) and classic R’n’B (I Don’t, which conjures up the Chi-Lites) in songs about the pleasures, pains and risks of love and relationships.
And between these diverse but thematically integrated songs – some steamy in their sensuality – are the restful sounds of tuned bowls, providing breathing spaces to consider the question implicit in this remarkable album’s title.
This album is available digitally, on vinyl and CD.
