Rating: 9/10

Brittany Howard is the lead vocalist and guitarist from rock group Alabama Shakes: the band behind hits like ‘Hold On‘ and ‘Don’t Wanna Fight‘. Howard had shown off her incredible rock singing voice over Alabama Shakes’ two studio albums, but has really demonstrated her talent as a solo artist with her debut album, ‘Jaime‘ – easily one of the best albums of 2019 so far. On ‘Jaime‘, Howard showcases her vocal ability, songwriting skill and her eye for production, on the 11 track album with influences from blues, R&B, soul, rock and pop.

Easily the best thing about ‘Jaime‘ is Brittany Howard’s incredible voice. On each track, her vocals float on top of beautifully crafted instrumentals, as you really feel the impact of every word she sings. The lead single for the album, ‘Stay High‘ serves as a stellar example of this, as she sings of her love for her father, over what sounds like a toy piano – which as unusual as it might sound, makes for a really brilliant and endearing track. On this single, Howard matches expert production with a catchy hook, something she succeeds with throughout the album.

The album’s opener, ‘History Repeats‘ is a perfect way to start the project, with a really cool sounding drum beat playing out over a blues guitar riff. Whilst the track ‘Georgia‘ is a slower song, with an incredibly infectious chorus, with Brittany’s voice sounding truly heavenly over the simple beat, before the track culminates with a really nice organ solo. Tracks 1-6 on the album honestly work perfectly and really are faultless as far as I’m concerned.

Whilst there are a lot of great love songs and positive tracks on this album, the standout song has to be ‘Goat Head‘. On the track, Howard sings about the heartbreaking discrimination she faced growing up as a mixed-race child in the South, singing: “When I first got made / Guess I made these folks mad.” The repeating piano riff throughout the song, with Howard’s vocals over it is hard to not be moved by, on a truly powerful song. Brittany’s repeated refrain of “goat head in the back” at the end of the track is haunting and after first listen, I just had to repeat the track, as it is such a well-constructed and moving song.

Another moment which touches on deeper societal issues is the spoken word piece, ‘13th Century Metal‘. The track features really experimental but great sounding keys from Jazz pianist Robert Glasper, and sees Howard speak on America in 2019. Despite the lyrical content, it doesn’t sound too preachy, instead thanks to the distortion on her voice, it blends perfectly with the uniquely hectic instrumental, to create a truly inspired piece of music.

As much as I love this album, I have to say there are a few moments on this project that I feel aren’t as strong – the track ‘Baby‘ for example, which is a cute track with a nice riff, but it seems a bit simple compared with some of the other songs on this album. This doesn’t mean they’re bad tracks by any means, but instead they serve to emphasise how amazing most of this album is.

I’d listened to a few tracks from Alabama Shakes before this album, but I really wasn’t aware of the skill and talent of Brittany Howard. I’ll definitely be paying attention to whatever she does in the future, be it solo music or another project with her band, but for now ‘Jaime‘ has definitely proven that Brittany Howard is a beyond talented.