When I saw this new Alabama Shakes video for ‘Sound and Color’, I immediately thought about this new Star Wars trailer, because when do you see a black man in a space suit? Right? not so often…
But the clip has a more Stanley-Kubrick-than-George-Lucas vibe, and we follow 3 minutes of a man’s life in space when he is having flash backs, yearning for his life on earth while living in this sterile environment, very far away from any sound and color, because in a space ship everything is empty and white.
It’s not a concept that would have crossed my mind at all when listening to the song and watching any performance of the band, but it shows a total new side of Alabama Shakes who are always thinking out of the box of clichés that we can be attached to any bluesy-funky-punk-rock-soul music,… see, it’s already very difficult to categorize them!
The clip was directed by James Frost, and based on a concept by the band’s singer-songwriter Brittany Howard, who had already explained her multi-horizon influences in an interview with Rolling Stone. She said ‘she was inspired by everything from Roberta Flack to the E.T. soundtrack as the band expanded beyond the soulful roots-rock of their debut.’… ‘It’s a bit far-out. When it came time to gather all the songs, we thought, ‘What kind of record is this?’ And we said, ‘Very strange.’ But I love it.’
‘We just wanted to be free and explore and not worry what this record would be in the public’s eye,’ added guitarist Heath Fogg.
Curiously the music and lyrics go very well with the story…‘Life is/Sound and color/Love is/Sound and color’… and I was almost ready to watch another 2001 Space Odyssey when the short song was already over.