Watching the ever popular BBC show "Later... with Jool Holland", of course, late at nigh, can make you doze off. Paricularly if artist playing at that moment is not something that really interests you. So it happened. But then, through the light sleep, I her Jools announcing "from Alabama USA, its St. Paul & ThreBroken Bones!". The sound of an energetic, tight and above soulful band wakes me up. I open my eyes, and see a bunch of Southern white guys (all of them), fronted by this chubby guy in a flowered jacket, whose voice you could have instantly mistaken for any of those you heard on legendary Willie Mitchell's "Hi" label. Backing that voice is a tight five man band, producing that all so recognizable Southern soul sound, but in a new, reemagined way.
Usually, hearing a band that sounds so great live (studio, or no studio), you rush to grab the latest album and get sorely disappointed. Not this time around. "Sea of Noise", might be the sea, but it is definitely not just any old noise. It is a sea of horn driven great soul, r&b or any sound these Southern boys were exposed too. Yes, yo can sense all these influnces, but St. Paul & The Broken Bones are not just simple style copycats. They have fully digested their influences and produce a sound that still sounds fresh and new. Whether it is a tight mid-tempo tune like "Brain Matter" or a slow, gospel-like burner like "Sanctify", you are not guessing: where have I heard that before, but are simply enjoying the music.
While the band is great, the arrangments fully fitting the sound, it still evolves around the great voice of the band's frontman, Paul Janeway. To produce a voice like that he really needs those few extra pounds. St. Paul doesn't produce a wrong note. So, the Bones are definitely not broken, and Janeway might really deserve that sainthood one day.
