Alabama 3, Exile on Coldharbour Lane

This is the kind of music that you hear when you know you've ventured into a bar you shouldn't have. If your out on the razzle, have had one too many and you can't remember the last three things you did; be it driving out of followed a group of greasy bikers or ran naked through a cornfield, and you hear this music you know you've taken it one step too far. This is music you could associate with facial hair, gratuitous leather and a beer belly. To make matters worse, the slight techno backing gives the album a kind of malformed, delinquent craziness.

If you're looking for more tracks like 'Sopranos' theme 'Woke up this Morning', you would be better off buying the limited edition of 'La Peste,' Alabama 3's wonderfully dark and bluesy second album which contains 'Woke Up' as a bonus track. On 'Exile' you'll find only two such songs: an tense pot-boiler of a song called 'The Night we Nearly got Busted' and "Sister Rosetta", a grinding blues number reminiscent of the Rolling Stone's "Miss You".

On 'Exile', the Alabama 3 (known as A3 in the United States) mix the soundtrack of the American heartland--country and western--with their own techno/house beats, gospel, blues and uproariously funny satire into an album as fresh as it is fun.

The album kicks off with 'Converted,' a brooding gospel hymn on renewal, then proceeds into a stellar cover of 'Speed of the Sound of Loneliness.' The veritas of the songs' world-weary vibe is as refreshing as it is compelling. Other highlights include "Mao Tse Tung Said," a syncopated rant that opens with a torrent Jim Jones invective; and "Hypo Full of Love," a roll-on-the-floor-funny skewering of evangelical Christianity and drug culture.

The band's schtick, an amalgam of southern Baptist preaching and socialist rabble-rousing, is brilliantly funny but can grow wearisome over time. Their rowdy humor belies their sophistication, however. Careful listeners will find a wealth of solid musicianship and rapid-fire literary, political and pop-culture allusions; even after many years of listening I am still discovering new details. This is a group of intelligent, talented musicians creating top-notch post-modern music.

For samples from this and other albums, visit the band's official site at www.alabama3.co.uk or the unofficial site at www.freea3.com.