Search - Alabama 3 :: Power in the Blood

With Power in the Blood, A3 may have finally gotten everything right. Their first album, as good as it was, came across as a bit of a novelty record (maybe the world just wasn't quite ready for a mix of country and techno music?). Their second album, La Peste, upped the production stakes a bit too much, to the sacrifice of their country soul. So it's reassuring that Power in the Blood takes the best bits of both previous releases, resulting in their best album yet. It's still as slickly produced as the best dance music (they are, after all, labelmates with Bjork), but they manage to infuse their electronics with genuine heart and soul--they may be the first dance act that would sound just as good unplugged. Best of all, they manage to combine guitars and drum machines with catchy anti-establishment songs while never fully lapsing into the dubious realm of Chumbawamba, which is why it's perfectly acceptable to dance along to the banjos and fiddle on standout track "Woody Guthrie", even if it does boast a chorus that says "Don't need no country / Don't fly no flag / Cut no slack for the Union Jack / Stars and Stripes have got me jetlagged". Granted, Power in the Blood is not a perfect album--it's too long and the lyrics get a bit preachy and heavy handed--but it is a good one. The lyric "Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be DJs" (on the superbly-titled "The Devil Went Down to Ibiza") is alone worth the price of admission. --Robert Burrow