I’ve not been particularly familiar with Zac Brown Band’s music over the years. While I have always respected their musicianship, their sound is perhaps not my thing. However, when I heard their new record was being produced by Dave Grohl, how could I resist such an intriguing collaboration? Yeah, I actually bought it (who buys music these days, guys? Kidding, I really hope you do).
‘All Alright’, the opener, is perhaps more what you would expect from an average Zac Brown Band album. Recorded in a rather soulful style with bluesy instrumentation, it perhaps has slightly more of a focus on bass than prior material, and a guitar solo with tons of overdrive and twang to suddenly set it alight. What really begins to set this EP aside from the outset is the attention to varying song structure. You might be forgiven for thinking that Dave Grohl didn’t contribute much to the overall delivery of this Zac Brown Band record, but despite not exactly having extensive knowledge of their repertoire, I do get the feeling that he encouraged a little less formulaic approach. For example, after two verses, two choruses, and a solo, ‘All Alright’ drops down into a brief slow, stripped back soul middle eight, before kicking back into the refrain and throwing the levels up and down for a bit for an identity crisis of an outro.
‘Let It Rain’, by contrast, offers a drum solo for an intro, accompanied by harsh harmonies before using fiddle to tap back into a more standard country feel. This focus on a more complex and more prominent drum pattern in addition to semi-aggressive harmonies goes on to characterize this track, juxtaposed against gentler verses and a heavily synthed bridge that evolves into an electric violin solo. Confused yet? What’s perhaps unfortunate about this new creative drive from the group is that their knack for writing nifty hooks and gliding melodies is slightly lost amongst the more intense chaos than usual, however that’s not to say that they don’t lock in and grow in time. Noticed that I haven’t mentioned the lyrics yet too? With so much going on, they haven’t jumped out at me, and I haven’t got a clue what any of the songs are about, apart from ‘Day For The Dead’ mentioning a zombie apocalypse, but we’ll get to that later. This might represent a problem with connecting with country fans, particularly as many already won’t be familiar with Dave and will feel disorientated by the interesting song structures.
‘The Muse’ is similarly musically overwhelming, with plenty going on from beginning until end, and a sound that is sort of southern rock cross soul cross folk (you never can tell with this band) with a big singalong chorus. It’s easily arguable that this has the most radio-friendly chorus of the whole EP, but equally a lot of the production on the rest of the track refuses to conform in such a commercial way. It’s not that it’s unlistenable, inaccessible or weird, it’s just a little spontaneous, random, schizo, quirky. Mind you, that’s a characteristic that ZBB have been refining for many years with great years, so perhaps that’s their style I’m nitpicking at. Not that I’m criticizing it, per se, and this was obviously not meant to be a radio hit, but all I can conclude from listening is that it is what it is. Which, you might argue, is good, because it’s making me think, and listen again for that matter.
‘Day For The Dead’, the EP’s closer, is probably my favorite song of the record. Having performed it at the Country Music Association Awards, it has a really catchy chorus with some great adrenaline-building rhythms and some interesting contrasts between stripped back, carefree verses (similar to how they’ve done on the previous tracks) and a much rockier chorus that pulls things along with much more force and purpose than much of their material. I have to say, a rockier Zac Brown Band is really something that I could get on board with. The clashing fiddle and electric guitar in the bridge may be initially brash to the ears, but it’s also cool and something new from them, in addition to the clever semi-beatboxing and call-and-response style vocalizing from the different members, jumping between the speakers.
Dave Grohl’s influence is clear in the overall presentation and structure of ‘The Grohl Sessions Vol. 1’. There’s certainly a rock ethos here, in the convoluted lyrics with smaller focus, and the tendency to go off-road with styles and creative, progressive decisions. I’m not sure if I love it, but I’m certainly intrigued to hear a more definitive, self-assured sound with the potential of a volume 2 hanging in the air.
