Put it down to the fact that it was recorded at the world-famous FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - as used by Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones - but DeWolff's follow-up to 2023’s Love, Death & In Between comes filled with ghosts from rock’n’soul’s illustrious past.
Opener In Love sets the tone. A gorgeous, blue-eyed soul ballad, it finds Pablo van de Poel channelling his inner Marvin Gaye, his charged emotional state (“It’s turning my world upside down/All my senses inside out”) mirrored by a backdrop of shimmering Hammond organ and Isley Brothers-esque fuzz guitars.
The euphoric mood continues into Lynyrd Skynyrd-style groove Natural Woman. “Just a little bit crazy/But that’s all part of the thrill!” declares van de Poel of (presumably) his latest squeeze, his giddiness summed up in the breathless exclamation: “Alabama lady… where’d you get your sugar from?”
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DeWolff have always worn their influences on their sleeve, and there's the occasional misstep. Book Of Life'is a Leon Russell piano boogie which fails to fully ignite, while an eight-minute Snowbird should have done with some judicious editing. Nonetheless, something about recording in the Deep South has made them dig deeper, finding new ways to express their love of the music that touched them as teenagers. And when it works the results are stunning.
Out On The Town is a gritty wig-out, while Ophelia suggests Deep Purple high on hooch, complete with a festival-friendly wordless chorus and some impressive guitar pyrotechnics. If sax-heavy stomp Truce raises the temperature further, it’s on Winner (When It Comes To Losing) where they really hit pay-dirt, Robin Piso’s Doors-like electric piano combining with Pablo’s southern fried wah-wah to hypnotic effect. There’s a similarly nocturnal feel to Free-like strut Fools & Horses, while the penultimate Ships In The Night is a moving tale of tour-bus blues (“A hundred nights away from home/A thousand miles ahead”) which morphs from soulful O’Jays-style groove into a Black Crowes-esque rock ’n’ roll jam.
Some may scoff at such slavish devotion, but there’s a sincerity here which marks DeWolff out as true believers. Final track Cicada Serenade is, as the title suggests, simply a recording of the hum of insects – an elemental final nod to this musical shrine.
