#sorry to apollo 1 but more of nasa should have been on fire

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The Music Occurred Album Review: Young Sick Camellia

Who: St. Paul & the Broken Bones Title: Young Sick Camellia

Here at Music Occurred we are proud to say that St. Paul & the Broken Bones are one of our favorite bands. We go to every local show possible and snatch up the records the day they come out. While we haven't been around since Day 1, we are fans since before the Wilson Pickett/Otis Redding shows at Bottletree. We've been fortunate to interview several members of the band and we've covered previous releases and concerts (all links below article.)

One of life's great pleasures is to witness an artist grow and morph into something even more beautiful and powerful. St. Paul & the Broken Bones, or should we say Broken Boundaries (sorry had to do it) are in the midst of that now. Their third studio release, Young Sick Camellia dropped today with much fanfare. They had teased a few singles over the past couple months and NPR streamed it the week prior to release making the new directions not exactly secret. Evidently there's been a little blowback. No matter what you do as an artist, there will always be a contingent of "fans" that want you to stay in one spot forever like fireflies in a mason jar. At least pop a few holes in the lid willya? How can you expect a band from Birmingham, Alabama to suddenly go from local shows (a few exceptions for some members) to touring relentlessly for half a decade, opening for the Rolling Stones and playing all around the world to sound the same as they did when covering Otis Redding in local bars? Beats me. Personally I like to get a little weird once in a while and I love it when bands spread those wings and take flight. That's exactly what SPBB have done here. Don't get me wrong, despite some songwriter ballads, folky acoustic tunes and a little more synth in the place of the B3 this is still a St. Paul & the Broken Bones record. They're just a few exits down the highway now.

I'm not going to go track by track but a few notable songs deserve some love:

"Convex" is bassist Jesse Phillips announcement to the world that the low end is alive and well. Good lord what a funky, greasy bassline. This track has the precision horns you've come to love about SPBB.

"GotItBad" Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to stop reading this and shake your ass. This track will surprise you a bit as it is the first to present you with that synthy sound, but instead of going all conservative and firing up Twitter to yell at the band, put on some good headphones and dance like nobody is watching.

"NASA" is a classic SPBB track with a groove as thick as the air on a Southern August night with that fabulous horn section leading the way.

"Apollo" is synthy 80s pop with Jesse's bass once again taking charge (sensing a theme yet?)

"Hurricanes" and "Bruised Fruit" are probably the biggest sonic departures from what you likely consider the SPBB sound. Both are much softer with personal lyrical content.

"LivWithoutU" is the second song to use Prince-Inspired grammar in the title. This, along with "GotItBad" had me flipping the record over looking for Nile Rodgers' name in the credits. And at the risk of being repetitive, this bassline from Jesse is certainly reminiscent of David Hood's signature bounce.

Young Sick Camellia has some great individual tracks on it but it is a single piece of art. Not many people make albums anymore so I'm thankful for SPBB in that respect.

Bottom Line: This is a great band with incredible talent at every spot on stage. Get off your ass, go to your LOCAL record store and buy a copy. I'll see you at the show.

Tracklist:

Cumulus pt. 1 Convex GotItBad NASA Mature pt. 2 Apollo Mr. Invisible Hurricanes Dissipating pt. 3 LivWithoutU Concave CaveFlora pt. 1 Bruised Fruit

-JS

Links to previous SPBB content from musicoccurred.com

Show Review

Interview with Browan

Interview with Chad

Interview with Jason

Sea of Noise Review