Album Review: The Suffers-The Suffers

The Suffers

The Suffers

*** out of *****

Funk and soul, sunshine and rain all come through on The Suffers confident self titled debut. The players that make up the Houston based ten piece are polished and refined, while still showing their individual talents enough to make things engaging.

The band has its chops down but it seems to be the magic in the moment that makes them special, and even from this studio release a live stage would seem the natural setting. The grooving bass and blaring horns of "Make Some Room" set the down-home-tone with lyrics of cooking and cleaning for love.  

Kam Franklin is the charismatic front woman and her lyrics of food and domestic harmony pop back up in "Peanuts" reinforcing that trend. There are also a few slowed down soul torch jams that focus on her warm vocals ("Midtown" and "Better"). The Suffers also like to put a twist on the Jamaican ska vibe via "Good Day" and more successfully "Slow It Down".

A healthy dose of blaxplotation soundtrack pops up in the bands best track "Gwan" where funky bass, big disco breaks and hand drums mix winningly. That late 70's lush instrumentation is everywhere.

Overall this debut disk throws the same styled, slightly different tracks, hoping one hits it big; this doesn't make for a cohesive album but rather a collection of would be singles. That is just fine though as the tracks work well on their own and the Gulf Coast Soul outfit seems to be a shoe-in to headline sunshiny (and rainy) festivals for years to come.
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