What is it about this mob that fails to persuade? Their steel peddle revivalism comes on like pastiche, yet it’s subtle, tender pastiche, delivered with intelligence and reverence. There are hints of Beck, glimpses of vintage Nick Cave and tremors too of music that is older, sadder, wiser. On their new record the group, pitched up from the backwoods of Brixton, offer jaunty homage to Johnny Cash. This should sound tawdry and opportunistic but doesn’t.
Something in the mix churns wrong, nonetheless. For all the persuasive shapes they throw, Alabama 3 have never approached an authentic vision. Like the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, something of the cabaret clown trickles through their veins. In their eagerness to woo, they betray a showman’s streak that feels cheap and tatty. Outlaw waxes naff from every pore. There is a dreadful cover – a more-disturbing-than-it ought-to-be image of an infant wearing a stetson – and an opener, ‘Train Intro’ that swaggers and lurches, as though preparing for a bar brawl. Deeper horrors await in the interior: ‘How Can I Protect You’, for instance, boasts the terrifying epithet “featuring Aslan” and halfway through duly erupts into a sampled chorus of 'Crazy World'. The moment is redolent of tucking into an expensive meal only to find something slithering amongst the vegetables.