Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!
Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!

JFH Music Review


Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Medicine
CLICK COVER TO ENLARGE

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors
Medicine



Artist Info: Discography
Genre(s): Folk Rock / Americana
Album length: 12 tracks: 43 minutes, 51 seconds
Street Date: January 27, 2015


Drew Holcomb and his Neighbors are the real deal. In a musical landscape that is increasingly fragmented--and authentic, chock-full-with-feeling-and-grit rock and roll is scarce to be found--Holcomb continues to bring authentic, honest music time and again. On the band's latest, Medicine, heartland rock is the name of the game.

Taking cues from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and The Eagles, Medicine opens slowly with the pastoral "American Beauty," which celebrates young love and the nostalgia of childhood in the kind of song that most songwriters would give their front teeth to write. The next song, "Tightrope," opens slowly, with Ellie Holcomb chiming in on harmonies (her absence is felt keenly on Medicine) but builds to a satisfying crescendo and a promise by Holcomb to "go wherever you go." "Here We Go" is a slightly corny stab at a bar-stool, honky-tonk swinging number, but Drew and the Neighbors pull it off with verve. (And the video with the band dancing around in various period costumes, including Holcomb shuffling away in a banana suit is not to be missed.)

It isn't till the fourth song, "Shine Like Lightning," that Medicine truly takes off. Taking a few notes from the aforementioned Tom Petty's "Wont Back Down," "Shine Like Lightning" is a statement of purpose that would sound great in an arena and seems destined for a truck commercial or sports montage. "Avalanche" and "Heartbreak" are both dusty numbers that seem like the soundtrack to a small town. In "Sisters And Brothers," Holcomb steps into his best gospel shouting voice, similar to current popular Irishman Hozier, to deliver a rousing plea for unity. "When All Is Said And Done" closes the album with a meandering, steel guitar solo that feels like a winding river, and just right for a song collection this unabashedly classicist.

Holcomb is an unapologetic traditionalist songwriter (even the cover photo of Medicine looks like it could have been taken fifty years ago) and these scrappy, down-home tunes might not be for everyone, but if you are up for some unvarnished, soulful songwriting at its best, Drew Holcomb might have just the Medicine for you.

- Review date: 1/25/15, written by Alex "Tincan" Caldwell of Jesusfreakhideout.com



(JFH Sponsor Spot)

Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!

 

. Record Label: Magnolia Music
. Album length: 12 tracks: 43 minutes, 51 seconds
. Street Date: January 27, 2015
. Buy It: iTunes
. Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)
. Buy It: Amazon.com (Vinyl)
. Buy It: Amazon.com (CD)

  1. American Beauty (2:38)
  2. Tightrope (3:56)
  3. Here We Go (3:22)
  4. Shine Like Lightning (3:17)
  5. Avalanche (5:25)
  6. Heartbreak (4:01)
  7. You'll Always Be My Girl (2:53)
  8. Sisters Brothers (3:16)
  9. The Last Thing We Do (3:26)
  10. Ain't Nobody Got It Easy (3:47)
  11. I've Got You (2:36)
  12. When It's All Said and Done (5:13)

 



Leave a Comment

 

 

go to main Album review page
go to Album review archive

 


(JFH Sponsor Spot)

 

 

                 
Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!

Search JFH




This Friday, November 8, 2024
ALBUMS
Gabby Barrett Carols and Candlelight [Warner Music Nashville]
CXMMXNS CXMMXNS Chapter 1 - EP [Essential Worship]
New Hope Oahu There Is One - EP [DREAM]
Neal Morse & The Resonance No Hill For A Climber [InsideOut]
TAKE Time Bomb [Resuscitation Records]
Lauren Talley A Lauren Talley Christmas [Horizon]

SINGLES
Cory Asbury I Hope You Dance - Single [BEC]
Jordan Kauflin, Laura Story Approach, My Soul - Single [Getty]
Sam Bowman & GLADDEN Misfit Toys - Single [DREAM]
Wavorly Enemies - Single (independent)

VINYL
Michael W. Smith Every Christmas Vinyl [Rocketown]
Stryper To Hell with the Amps Vinyl [Frontiers]
TAKE Time Bomb Vinyl [Resuscitation Records]

DVD
Stryper To Hell with the Amps Blu-Ray [Frontiers]

Next Friday, November 15, 2024
ALBUMS
Dolly Parton & Family Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables [Owepar Entertainment]
The Lore Family Faith Over Fear [Horizon]
Fernando Ortega For All the Saints - EP (independent)
Earnest Pugh Worth is the Lamb
We Are Messengers Rejoice! (A Celtic Christmas) - EP [Curb]
Paul Wright III Reverie [United Alliance]

SINGLES
Big Dismal Here In My Heart - Single (independent)
Hannah Kerr It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Single [Curb]
Olivia Lane Silent Night - Single [BEC]
Tasha Layton Wake Up It's Christmas - Single [BEC]
Jamie MacDonald A Million Chances - Single [Capitol CMG]
Ronnie Martin On Christmas Morning - Single [Velvet Blue]
Hunter Plake Daylight - Single [BEC]
Jordan St. Cyr Christ is Here - Single [BEC]

VINYL
Sixpence None the Richer Divine Discontent Vinyl [Word]



For all release dates, click here!
 



Check out the new album from Taylor Holland Armstrong!



Listen to the new Single from Second Adam and the New Creations!

Check out depositphotos for royalty free images