..The sound of Alabama 3 starting to eat themselves.
alabama Reviewed Here



Alabama 3 continue with their ever prolific journey as a middling, doing-OK, never-going-to-rule-the-world act who, ten years and thirteen albums in, are finally starting to stagnate. The usual A3 ingredients, techno, religion, country and western, hardcore socialism, hedonism and Elvis, are all present and correct in droves. The melodic strengths, the hummable tunes that are the bands core redeeming feature are still here in spades. Maybe this album will stand up in decades time as a classic - but probably not.

Simply put, Alabama 3 are now entering their niche phase : selling a respectable amount of albums, doing everything as a small business, and generally getting by adequately with the odd tour, the odd record, and never setting the world afire. The records conform to type - you either know what they're going to sound like, or you've never heard of them. Stand out tracks "Monday Morning" and "Holy Blood" give you a pretty good idea of what exactly they sound like - unique and unusual driving bleeps and heartfelt anguish.

"M.O.R." is a strange beast : like other A3 records, it contains a solid, dependable selection of memorable songs that cross the genres to produce something new and unique. That said, it doesn't pioneer any new ground (by A3 standards, anyway). Producing a now somewhat dated template of bleeps and blips that sound forever 1993 melded to a deep love of gospel rock and 70's M.O.R, the album is the sound of A3 starting to eat themselves. It's a good, well produced record, surfing on the sea of an unholy amalgam of styles and influences that sounds unlike anything you've ever heard. But that may not be enough to save it from an obscurity it doesn't deserve. Alabama 3 are out there on their own, far removed from anything and anyone else. Lost in space and time.
- posted by Mark @ 11:31 pm