Grace Potter & the Nocturnals' self-titled 2010 album raised the band's profile. It traded heavily on their concert strengths, and while not perfect, it more or less shored up their reputation with fans and spread their rep globally.
The Lion The Beast The Beat is a creative leap. With the band having enlisted producer
Jim Scott, most tracks were cut live from the floor of his studio with strings, effects, and backing vocals added later. The sound here is big, sometimes bombastic, but never slick; it's wildly varied, too. Collectively, the songs have a very loose thematic link about the gray areas between perception and reality, looking at everything from relationships to time's passage. The title track contains the band's signature big guitars and drums roaring above an organ and strings. It nods -- without winking -- at
the Go-Go's' "We Got the Beat."
Dan Auerbach co-wrote and co-produced "Never Go Back," the album's first single. It's a tricky, quirky number with an off-kilter funk riff à la mid-period
Talking Heads. Its chorus is infectious and
Potter's singing, alternately seductive and authoritative, grabs the listener by the throat. The ballad "Stars" looks directly toward country radio with its pedal steel and lilting hook. That said, it's warmer and more natural-sounding.
Auerbach and
Potter also co-wrote the
Doors-influenced "Loneliest Soul," an uptempo groover with pulsing organ, slinky Rhodes, and a popping bassline that pushes it above imitation. The psych-tinged "Timekeeper" is an unlikely pop song, but its distinctly retro feel and
Potter's exquisite vocal -- which is far more disciplined than on any previous recording -- are irresistible. "Runaway" is punchy, nasty, funky rock & roll -- one keeps expecting horns, but they never appear. Co-produced by
Auerbach and
Scott, it contains the former's feel for live distortion and the latter's layered ambience and dynamics, and combines them to great effect. The guitar break is smoking; it pushes
Potter to her limit in response. The closer, "The Divide," is the set's best track. It's a slow-building, apocalyptic rocker, whose three guitars create menace and drama. They are balanced by a careening organ and a large string section, arranged to carry the proceedings from the abyss to transcendence. While
Potter's melodies and hooks are solid on
The Lion The Beast The Beat, some of her lyric choices are still a bit clunky. However, she and
the Nocturnals compensate with passion, execution, and smart production choices and arrangements. With its exponential musical growth, this might indeed be the record that moves the band from the merely recognizable into the pop mainstream. ~ Thom Jurek