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Album Review: Booker T - Sound The Alarm

Dan Condon

There may be more rock’n’roll credibility on previous outings, but the 68-year-old proves here that it’s within the realms of soul and pop music that he does his best work.

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While his comeback records Potato Hole (with Drive-By Truckers) and The Road From Memphis (featuring the likes of The National's Matt Berninger, Sharon Jones, Lou Reed and more) have been perfectly passable crossover soul-rock sets, there's something more exciting about Sound The Alarm that makes it stand above Booker T's past couple of LPs.

Mayer Hawthorne returns for the soulful opening title track, which effortlessly leads into the Luke James-led All Over The Place, both tracks shining examples of slick modern soul as good as you'll hear anywhere this year. Fun feels more like the Booker T of old than we've heard in a very long time, brilliant instrumental soul with his iconic B3 sitting front and centre of the chirpy arrangement. Jay James croons Broken Heart with a great amount of passion, while Booker T gets to let loose a little on the bluesy instrumental, Austin City Blues, with a little help from Gary Clark Jr on the axe. The slick, modern sound takes a backseat on 66 Impala, a brilliant Cuban-inspired ditty featuring Sheila E and Poncho Sanchez, while Booker's organ fits in seamlessly with Vintage Trouble in Your Love Is No Love.

Sound The Alarm is the slickest we've heard Booker T in a long time – it's a pop record first and foremost – and perhaps this is where his music needs to sit. There may be more rock'n'roll credibility on previous outings, but the 68-year-old proves here that it's within the realms of soul and pop music that he does his best work, even 51 years after his first hit.