Album review: Blues Pills – Birthday

It’s good to occasionally step back and thank the stars for the bands that do still care about heritage, care about doing it live and still salute the starting points that brought us here. Like Rival Sons and Northern Ireland’s The Answer, Blues Pills have always fed off an education of rock, blues and soul, and while they’ve developed their sound over the years, this fourth album is equally built to reach out to, and connect with, humanity.

Vocalist Elin Larsson, a remarkable presence and voice onstage, was in the latter stages of pregnancy while completing the aptly christened Birthday, and there’s something of that strength, love and maturity in all 11 of these new songs. While the band still take Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin’s high voltage witchcraft as their bricks and mortar, they sprinkle it with additional sass and soul in a way that feels more finished, more accomplished than ever before.

The title-track is a soul-stacked funky monster of a tune. Bizarrely, it was inspired by an altercation with a rude waiter, but who cares when the result is this instantly singable?

The band’s free-flowing but obviously blues-based rock isn’t as predictable as before, or very much like any of their peers. Don’t You Love It jogs in on throbbing bass, building to another splendidly dance-worthy hook. Piggyback Ride does the same thing even more directly, while Like A Drug is hushed and ominous, eliciting another heartfelt performance from Elin.

It's onstage that Blues Pills work best – the fact that this is their first album in four years might tell you that – but when they do deliver, it’s with subtle shades of change, stuff that not only keeps their light burning, but keeps you avidly gaping at their particular voodoo. Effortlessly and instinctively classic, long may it continue.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Greta Van Fleet, Hannah Wicklund, Rival Sons

Birthday is released on August 2 via Throwdown Entertainment/BMG