What Now

About

“This album is actually an album of questioning. There's a lot of introspection, and within that, I'm answering questions that I've never had the space or capacity to ask,” Brittany Howard tells Apple Music about <i>What Now</i>, the Alabama Shakes singer-guitarist’s second solo album. “I was always so busy, I was always running around, I was on tour, I was preparing thi, preparing that. This time I told myself when I would go in there and make songs in my little demo room, ‘No one's ever going to hear thi,’ and it was very freeing.” Of course, people would end up hearing those song, but that mindset helped Howard write from a brave new perspective. She dives into her personal history and guiding philosophy in a vulnerable way, like she did on 2019’s <i>Jaime</i>, but this time, the instrumental choices are bolder and more unexpected than ever before. “Power to Undo” is a folk-rock tune that showcases the album’s central theme. “You have the power to undo everything that I want/But I won't let you,” she sing. Once that’s revealed, the song descends into an acid-funk freakout, built around scratchy guitars and ramshackle drum. “‘Power to Undo’ is actually about freedom,” she say. “A lot of people can experience this feeling of ‘I know I shouldn't do that. I know I need to keep moving in this direction.’ It's just about this thing chasing you down, and you're like, ‘No, you're not going to get me, I'm not going to change direction.’” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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