13. Alabama 3—Exile on Coldharbour Lane (1997)
As the pale saucer of the moon grows into a gigantic goddamn platter, desperation grows exponentially and people reach for increasingly strange things to buoy up their spirits. Bizarre religious cults crop up left and right. People rally around old, threadbare political ideologies. Crowds rave until dawn and then country line dance until dusk. At the nexus of all this frenetic to-ing and fro-ing stand Alabama 3.
You may know them as the guys who wrote the song that was used in
The Sopranos opening credits. In fact, that song is on this album, though it takes on a very different tone when you listen to the whole thing and realize it's an ode to a bunch of jazz legends with no particular connection to organized crime whatsoever. At any rate, as much as I like "Woke Up This Morning", it barely scratches the surface of what this band is all about.
What are they about then? Well, electronic music smashed together with country, blues and gospel for one thing. Also, religious satire, Marxism, rehab, sleaziness, humor, fake American accents, toe-tapping beats, catchy hooks and, at times, surprisingly heartfelt sentiment. It's like they have some magical ability to just make sh
it work that allows them to be smart and dumb, funny and serious, campy and heartfelt all at once. I don't know how they pull it off, but they do.
Anyway, here's their track "Hypo Full of Love" (I have no idea what the car montage is all about):
And here they are covering John Prine (and, again, ignore the dumb random video):