The Chris Robinson Brotherhood – Phosphorescent Harvest (Album Review)

[rating=7.00]

The camaraderie of The Chris Robinson Brotherhood belies their time together. Formed in 2011 by the co-founder of The Black Crowes, the group caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle with their two initial albums (Big Moon Ritual and The Magic Door) released in quick succession the very next year. Now the sextet has returned to the studio to pick right up where they left off on Phosphorescent Harvest.

Sounding ever so natural together, CRB chug steadily into motion on “Shore Power,” the ensemble falling into a float just before cut’s end. It’s a precursor of things to come as the band purposefully but oh-so-leisurely wends its way through “About A Stranger,” its emphasis on Robinson’s raspy emotive singing, before the multi-colored facets of the Brotherhood’s instrumental array comes to the fore on “Meanwhile in the Gods”: the rhythm section of drummer George Sluppick and bassist Mark Dutton navigates some tricky time changes while erstwhile Crowes keyboardist Adam McDougal adds varying touches of texture and guitarist Neal Casal plays a pointed solo.

Crisp electric piano appears over a steady shuffle on “Badlands Here We Come” where Robinson renders the hallucinatory imagery of the lyrics as firmly as the beat moves. The unity of the playing here is result of CRB’s steady roadwork since its inception, but even so, the collective grace they evince there and on the subsequent cut, “Clear Blue Sky & The Good Doctor,” is redolent of an intrinsic chemistry.

There’s little extended improvisation on Harvest, but the slow-motion semi-waltz dominates the end of that aforementioned track, an atmosphere accentuated by the heavy echo on Robinson’s voice, just prior to the modified blues changes of “Beggar’s Moon.” Shifting gears so smoothly is one thing on stage and an equally tricky turn to enact in the studio through track sequencing; no doubt Thom Monahan’s production experience aids immeasurably in maximizing the Robinson Brotherhood’s strengths and accurately representing them on record like this.

The strong strumming of acoustic guitar mixed with bell-like grand piano on “Wanderer’s Lament” reminds the foundation of this album (and, by extension, CRB) is a reliable source of original material. This tune sounds like nothing so much as a traditional folk song permeated with rhythm and blues, its images of rustic landscapes and seasonal references all the more vivid as Robinson sings them. Likewise, on “Tornado,” The Chris Robinson Brotherhood demonstrates how the intelligence in its musicianship corresponds directly to its emotional quotient.

“Burn Slow,” suggests the long-term revelation of Phosphorescent Harvest’s virtues, even as the enigmatically titled closing instrumental, “Humboldt Windchimes,” cements the impression this album’s as heady a listen as its predecessors.