In 2019, Brittany Howard’s fantastic debut solo record Jaime was a genre-defying coming-out party, and that exciting sense that anything can happen at any moment is alive and vibrant throughout the even better follow-up, What Now.
Gone is the retro rock of The Alabama Shakes and in its place is a radiating neon kaleidoscope of Afrofuturism. Supremely excellent pop bangers nestle up next to soul ballads and collide with jazzy flights of fancy as speaker-shaking low-end, distorted synths, slapping percussion and prayer bowls wander in and out wonderfully throughout the twelve riveting tracks.
The album starts slow and builds to big beats and even bigger vocals from Howard on the opener “Earth Sign” as the artist announces herself. The slightly warped soul of “I Don’t” has children’s choral backing, deep bass, and well-placed piano while “Red Flags” uses skittering trap beats and distorted vocal effects to augment layers of Howard’s singing as her monstrous voice laments missing the title warnings in relationships.
Deeply emotional, Howard is invested in lyrics that deal with struggles in personal relationships and the world at large. The glorious Prince tribute/rave-up “Power To Undo” speaks to relationship dynamics around buzzing funky guitars while the Parliament Funkadelic feeling “Patience” urges its title phrase on large and small scales. The album-closing “Every Color Blue” is a swirling afrobeat delight that ends the record on a pensive note.
Howard also shows off some nuanced jazz moves as odd digital beats and modern jazz colors “To Be Still” while “Samson” is a delight with trumpet balladry and a long soothing exhale. As a full album, Howard uses a singing prayer bowl to link songs, which at times works well, such as the outro to the EDM club banger “Prove It To You”, but at other junctures, it feels forced and out of place, like when it closes the overloaded, pumped up disco of “Another Day”.
This is a small quibble, especially when the album contains a huge, dynamite single like the title track which is a booming success all around as it channels the best of Michael Jackson and struts with passion. The same can be said for What Now as a whole as this release has cemented Howard as a must-hear artist as the wonderful sonic collage, soaring vocals, and insightful lyrics all come together winningly.
