NME Reviews

Hull University

They spread their word via acid beats, bluesy harmonica and country sensibilities  and the word is Love...

We live in a sick, sick world where every problem seems to be answered with a bomb and a band like All Saints get widespread respect. It's corrupted and mangled on every level; enough to make people turn to the church. Yet when that turns out to be nothing but a hotbed of hypocritical farce and unholy allegations, it's time for a new religion. Time for THE VERY REVEREND DOCTOR D WAYNE LOVE and his band, Alabama 3.

They spread their word via acid beats, bluesy harmonica and country sensibilities - and the word is Love. On 'Hypo Full Of Love (The 12-Step Plan)', a satire on a Minnesota rehabilitation programme, the Glaswegian D Wayne evangelises like he never set foot outside Texas: "Make a searching inventory of all your good shit/Inventory taken you hand all that good shit over to me".

The whiskey-smooth vocals of LARRY LOVE - part cowboy and part pimp - are at their best on a cover of JOHN PRINE's 'Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness'. It's 'Mao Tse Tung Said', though, that's their finest moment, vicious in its attack of the 'change must come through the barrel of a gun' slogan and intrusively, intelligently insidious. Forget Jesus. All you need is  Love.

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