I’ve mentioned before my love for Nathaniel Rateliff and his booming baritone and why it’s made him one of my most beloved contemporary singers. His solo album And It’s Still Alright from 2020 was a pivotal pandemic album for me that helped get through all the wild ass confusion that swallowed us all during that time. As I said in that writeup:
Nathaniel Rateliff is one of my favorite contemporary singers. His voice has a real richness on the low end and when he decides too really let loose the power he delivers almost sounds unhinged. I also love his weird articulation of certain words– I don’t know this for sure, but I’m pretty sure Rateliff purposefully decides to mispronounce things strategically as an artistic choice vs. any unique accent or inability to sing a word “correctly”. It’s great and always adds a unique color to whatever he’s singing.
– Nathaniel Rateliff And It’s Still Alright, musicofmatthew.com
Rateliff’s 2015 self-titled album with The Night Sweats features much of the same calling cards as And It’s Still Alright does from a vocal perspective, but instead of being layered over moody folk soundscapes, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats finds itself intertwined with revivalist soul music that harkens back to the simpler days of the 70’s. It’s a wonderful nod to nostalgia that when combined with Rateliff’s positively depressing world-weary outlook on life manages to cut to the heart of the matter in nearly every song.
Standout Songs: “Howling At Nothing”, “S.O.B.”, “I’ve Been Failing”
Matthew. 