Alabama Shakes return with third album I Must Be Dreaming after eleven years of silence

Anyone who thought Alabama Shakes were gone for good is in for a surprise. Eleven years after the hugely successful Sound & Color (2015), the American band fronted by singer and guitarist Brittany Howard has suddenly returned with a third album. It's called I Must Be Dreaming, and it's a record nobody saw coming.

The road back was anything but straightforward. In 2017 the band called it quits, worn down by relentless touring and the emotional toll it had taken on both their personal lives and their creative freedom. The years that followed were turbulent: Howard's marriage to Jesse Lafser, which took place in 2019, barely lasted a year, and drummer Steve Johnson was arrested for domestic violence in 2020. He received a suspended sentence and effectively disappeared from music altogether. The exuberant joy of their soulful debut Boys & Girls (2012) seemed further away than ever.

The turning point came in December 2024, during an intimate benefit concert in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that Howard organised for her friend and brewer Bo Hicks. Guitarist Heath Fogg and bassist Zac Cockrell joined her onstage unannounced, and the three of them rediscovered the euphoria of their early years together. That performance quickly made waves in the music world and marked the band's official comeback. Shortly afterwards, Howard, Fogg and Cockrell headed into the studio in Nashville, at Sound Emporium Studios and Blackbird Studio, working with Canadian producer Shawn Everett, who had previously been involved in Sound & Color as an assistant to Blake Mills.

Musically, I Must Be Dreaming is a bold and layered listening experience. The foundation is the swampy, distinctly Southern soul and rock that made Alabama Shakes famous, but from there almost anything goes. The record moves effortlessly between ethereal psychedelia, seventies funk with a nod to Curtis Mayfield, and moments that even brush up against trip hop, partly electronic in nature. Opener Tea Time sounds like a disoriented call to prayer backed by afrobeat guitars. Another Life takes off with an almost Hendrixian guitar solo that would fit right in on a Sault or Curtis Harding record. The deeply psychedelic Time is a space rocker with phenomenal drumming from newcomer Noah Bond, with the ghost of David Gilmour drifting hauntingly through it.

The album draws heavily from the sixties and seventies. Friends has the bittersweet flavour of Alex Chilton at his peak with Big Star, while Howard sings on Easy like an overdriven Aretha Franklin. Waist Deep lets the melancholic mud of the Muscle Shoals sound seep through blues first, landing somewhere between Drive By Truckers and Otis Redding. The most striking track is American Dream, which builds from a bass line rooted in Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and a melody reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield into a fully fledged political statement. The song title deliberately shares its name with Norman Mailer's controversial 1965 novel An American Dream, written as an indictment of the spiritual decay eating away at American society. Howard delivers a disillusioned account of eroding civil rights and blind consumerism: "Peace, love, happiness. The impossible dream" and "Got the big TV to show you what you didn't even know you wanted."

Alongside the social weight there is also room for hope and sensual optimism. Garden sways jazzily and warmly with influences from Erykah Badu and Marvin Gaye, carried by the piano playing of Llyod Buchanan. Third single I Feel Hope Coming breathes an intimate vibe reminiscent of Nina Simone and offers reassurance with the words: "Whatever's coming, let it come. There's no man that can make me run." Closer Tied To You is a hazy, introspective blend of Childish Gambino and late period Radiohead.

I Must Be Dreaming is not an easy listen, but a grower that rewards patience and openness. Alabama Shakes manages to reconcile the experimental impulses of Howard's solo work, Jaime (2019) and What Now (2024), with the more straightforward band sound of old. The band is also back on the road, with shows planned through the end of September. For Dutch music lovers who once took Alabama Shakes to heart, this comeback is more than worth your time.