We like transformations and re-inventions, don't we? It's a mark of an artist searching and discovering, a restless spirit channelled into creative pursuits. The Beatles, Bowie and more recently, Mumford & Sons, have done this, to varying degrees of success. And like Mumford & co, Rateliff has decided to dispense almost altogether with the folkier aspects of his music – sparse and melancholia folk was to the fore in his previous two albums; Memory of Loss and Falling Faster Than You Can Run – for a sound that loosely combines the driving brass of Dexys Midnight Runners with the old school blues-rock sounds of Alabama Shakes, via the the even older school shakes of Otis Redding and the golden era of soul in the 60s, whilst retaining traces of country and folk within the overall, and pleasingly eclectic palette. With a new band – the brilliantly named The Night Sweats – it seems that Rateliff can really let go, vocally, a deep, guttural growl that is controlled despite the at times ferociousness of the delivery.
 
Anyone who has seen The Blues Brothers will know how a big soulful, honking, dirty, swaggering and swinging band can literally make an audience delirious with pleasure, and while there have always been bands like this in The States, they have tended to be more of a tribute and revivalist type affair, a bit of a turn-off for today's younger music consumers.
 
Like Alabama Shakes, Rateliff is very much part of the new school of rootsy soul-blues-gospel-rock artists; he's a singer and songwriter who hasn't necessarily been weened on those sounds, never mind growing up with them in real time, but instead has discovered his parents record collections, come to appreciate their appeal, but crucially combined that vintage sound and sensibility with a contemporary hue. There's a real and growing desire to get back to the roots of rock'n'roll, away from the artificial digitalisation, over produced and clean sheen of music that threatened to tear the soul out of 'pop' and 'rock' in the 80s and 90s, in particular. He is, as they say, the Real Deal.
 
The dominant mode on this self-titled album are the soulful, powerhouse grooves of songs such as opener I Need Never Get Old – a track that nevertheless has plenty of space within its grooves – the distorted, dirty and brass-less Trying So Hard Not To Know, the uplifting Look It Here, and S.O.B, a really rootsy-blues number that sees Rateliff caught, somewhat deliriously, between a rock and a hard place. It's both defiant and remorseful as he details his need for a drink…
 
It's not all blazin' horns and stompin' good-time fare here – although there is plenty of that – Rateliff branching out into other territories with his new band invariably providing tasteful, musical and dynamic backing. Rateliff continues to impart a reflective and introverted lyrical base, even though it's more tribalistic and rawer than before, on the slower, sparser numbers such as the swamp-grooved Shake, the jazz-lounge vibes I'd Be Waiting, the bar room piano infused I've Been Failing, and Wasting Time, a melancholy and reflective country-soul number: "Thinking of all the hours I spent in constant refection/Well it gets you down, but it don't make it right."
 
The label that is releasing this album is the legendary Stax, home in the past to such greats as Wilson Pickett, Booker T & The M.G's, Sam & Dave and more recently, Ben Harper. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats have deservedly taken their place amongst them.
Jeff Hemmings