Album Review: Shovels & Rope Swimmin’ Time

Shovels & Rope burst through the wall of anonymity with their debut album, and now they’ve backed it up with another rollicking, rough and ready clutch of 13 songs.

Their live show gets rave reviews for its rawness and passionate delivery and they’ve bottled some of that here with throat-shredding enthusiasm sidling up next to heavy downtrodden Americana and some six-minute epic workouts. Though there is additional piano and organ on this album they keep the music simple and often skeletal in density which gives focus and weight to the duo’s mighty vocal interplay. This is unabashed celebratory rock’n’roll with a country heart.