Alternative-country seems to be the “in” thing these days. Not
\nthat I’m complaining; many of the bands who advocate this style I
\nhave found to be quite enjoyable, and their style of music might
\njust open up alternative music fans’ ears to country (and vice
\nversa).<\/p>\n
Soulhat is the latest band I’d place in this quickly-growing
\ncategory. Their latest disc,
\nExperiment On A Flat Plane<\/i>, shows that their approach to
\nthis genre (which includes a little more humor and a little more
\nfocus on the alternative side) can not only work, but work
\nwell.<\/p>\n
Led by vocalist\/guitarist Kevin McKinney, Soulhat plow through
\n12 such numbers (inclufing two shorter instrumental “bookends” on
\nthe disc), keeping the listener interested and entertained at the
\nsame time. Tracks like “Plastic,” “Mailbox” and “Cash” all will
\nmake the listener wonder why Soulhat hasn’t become a bigger name
\nyet. (Who knows? That all could change with this album.)<\/p>\n
But there’s plenty of light-hearted humor as well on
\nExperiment On A Flat Plane<\/i>. Take “WNBA” for example –
\npossibly the first song around to mention the relatively-new
\nwomen’s basketball league. Our hero laments the loss of his
\nbeloved, who has gone to play basketball – and it’s kind of funny
\nto hear him bemoaning the fact he can’t get free season tickets.
\n(The only drawback I could see is, because this song has the
\nstrongest country roots, it might re-affirm the stereotype that
\ncountry music is all about heartbreak, drinking and cheating.)<\/p>\n
Soulhat might have some twang to their music, but they also
\ndon’t abandon their alternative rock roots, as heard on the more
\nexperimental track “Microwave” – a track which is more bizarre than
\nI’d have expected, but is still intriguing nonetheless. If
\nanything, Soulhat should be commended for being willing to take
\nsuch risks in their music, especially a genre that is still in
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
Alternative-country is a genre of music that is supposed to be
\nfun to listen to, and
\nExperiment On A Flat Plane<\/i> meets these criteria. Something
\ntells me the best is yet to come from Soulhat, but until then, this
\ndisc will do nicely, thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6535],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36967","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soulhat","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36967"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36967"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}