Zach Williams and the Reformation - A Southern Offering

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RIYL

Black Crowes
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchet
That band from Roadhouse

Release Date

06/03/2011

Label

Self Released

Tracklist

1. Gravy Train
2. Mason Jar
3. Fools' Moon
4. Moving On
5. Picture Perfect
6. The Fix
7. Motels And Highways
8. Rock 'N' Roll Me
9. PO Box And A Postcard
10. Wishing Well
11. Sky Full Of Treasures

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Recent Ratings

As an avid metalcore fan in the year 2011, it was actually disarming to hear a Southern rock-influenced record that wasn’t on some level cognizant of Every Time I Die. The most metallic Zach Williams et al. get is the Molly Hatchet-tinged “Mason Jar,” and even that doesn’t stray too far down the hails-and-horns, or whatever, path. A Southern Offering is straight-up, meat-and-potatoes (and grits) Southern rock—albeit a compendium of the genre stretching several decades, but squarely in that line of sight nonetheless.

The Reformation set things on fire with album opener “The Fix,” a ballsier and more soulful take on the Black Crowes, and they continue to forge ahead while looking further back for inspiration on “Fools’ Moon,” a pretty direct homage to “Tuesday’s Gone With the Wind” that, though narrowly, can’t quite avoid hero worship. “Gravy Train” is a very strong track, and the bottle-smashing hooligans of Roadhouse would be thrilled. “Mason Jar,” as mentioned above, mines Molly Hatchet, but a major concern I have about this one is its narrative feels very received, and thus, cliché. “Motels and Highways” suffers from the same lyrical issues, and sonically plumbing Kid Rock waters does little to redeem it.

Fortunately the return to Lynyrd Skynyrd on “Moving On” prevents a free-fall, and though “Picture Perfect” does little to buoy the record, it does not sink it; beyond that, “PO Box” comes in strong with its yearning, earnest blues drawl, and “Sky Full of Treasures” is another down-home, down-on-luck eye toward redemption, and is also one of the strongest songs on the album. Taking up a lot of room in the cons department is “Rock ’N Roll Me”—another string of clichés that ends up sounding like Ray LaMontagne doing a Kid Rock impersonation. A Southern Offering concludes with “Wishing Well,” a no-frills rocker that does a good job tying the preceding contents together.

While an initial spin of A Southern Offering poses as a nostalgia-swept Southern rock treat, repeat listens start to reveal a few glaring weaknesses that still have yet to be corrected from the band’s debut two years ago. The first is that The Reformation are held completely hostage by their influences, either unable or unwilling to venture into anything resembling new territory. On the other side of that coin, the slick production prevents Zach Williams and company from fully embodying a retro sound. They uncomfortably straddle a crossroads, and haven’t committed to one direction or the other. Other things include the uneven quality of the record, and stemming from that a 1990s alt-rock sensibility of how to make an album (anyone who’s ever sat through a full Sponge record will know what I mean). All things considered A Southern Offering, and by extension Zach Williams and the Reformation, remains a work in progress.

--Jacob Oliver

Last updated: 07/30/2011 05:16AM

Comments

buckybrown
07/30/2011
08:16AM
I'll have to check this out. I myself have recently strayed from exploring new southern rock listenings and been more into the heavy metal, but have always enjoyed the genre, which comes in many shapes and sizes.