[rating=7.00]
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s Barefoot in the Head is a marked return to form following personnel shifts in the band over the last two years. The album may not resound so loudly as the group’s dual debut of 2012 (The Magic Door and Big Moon Ritual), but if this release proves anything, it’s that the new rhythm section of drummer Tony Leone and bassist Jeff Hill is firmly established in the ensemble.
In fact, the two newest members of CRB make their presence felt immediately. On “Behold The Seer,” Hill (who joined in 2016) reinforces Leone’s call-to-dance drum intro, the dual impetus of which Adam MacDougall glues together with the syncopated sounds of his clavinet. The latter’s keyboard work hasn’t always evinced the earthiest tones since becoming s prominent on the CRB’s 2014 album Phosphorescent Harvest, but here it meshes with the warm harmonica by Chris Robinson himself.
In much the same way, Neal Casal weaves the sounds of his guitar into the sensuous “Blonde Light of Morning.” Gossamer harmony vocals have also become an integral part of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood sound as it has re-crystallized, so there’s no sense of transition in progress here as on 2016’s Any Way You Love, We Know How You Feel or its companion piece EP If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home By Now. On the contrary, influences of folk and country music (somewhat reminiscent of the final Black Crowes studio work Before the Frost…Until the Freeze) reside at the heart of songs like “She Shares My Blanket.” The natural flow of such group-composed material certifies how the atmosphere within the band’s own studio, ‘Brotherhood Arts Laboratory,’ simultaneously relaxes and inspires.
Based on the concise ten tracks that comprise Barefoot in the Head, that ambience also encourages economy. “Hark the Herald Hermit Speaks,” for instance, is just one exercise in self-discipline, the overall result of which is a collection of cuts ranging in duration from roughly four to six minutes. Still, the CRB might’ve the extra step of including the lyrics to these songs on the flip-side of the photo poster within the sleeve of the colorful digi-pak: cryptic titles like “High Is Not the Top” deserve at least a modicum of clarity. Nevertheless, the double exposure of the quasi sepia-tone image symbolizes the fluid yet well-defined bond of the quintet.
Like a song climaxing on a diminished note, this fifth full-length CRB studio work ends on the ethereal tones of “Glow” and its slightly more upbeat counterpart, “Good to Know.” The track sequencing correctly reinforces the impression of this band’s work as a continuum (as did the most recent live releases, Betty’s Self-Rising Southern Blends, Vol. 3 and Live at the Warfield), leaving a listener in healthy anticipation of what will follow even as it whets the appetite for frequent listenings to this record.
