{"id":3861,"date":"2016-10-19T12:36:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-blackberry-smoke-like-an-arrow\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T23:29:57","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T23:29:57","slug":"album-review-blackberry-smoke-like-an-arrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-blackberry-smoke-like-an-arrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review:\u00a0Blackberry Smoke &#8211; Like An Arrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/63c7c5170c7b386445b3384472e2c4d0\/tumblr_inline_ofa3n3oeHD1qztcot_540.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Since releasing <i>\u2018Holding All The Roses\u2019<\/i> back in 2015, <b>Blackberry Smoke<\/b> have been <i>the<\/i> name in country-rock circles. And while country-rock itself may be a niche genre outside of the most dedicated classic rock stations, there\u2019s no doubt that the acclaim that album received propelled the Atlanta band to the top of the pile. But, with a cursory look at new album <i>&lsquo;Like An Arrow\u2019<\/i>, the seeds of doubt do begin to settle, with the band doing away with the earthy production styles of previous producers like Brendan O&#8217;Brien and Zac Brown in favour of a self-produced effort.<\/p>\n<p>But in reality, <i>&#8216;Like An Arrow\u2019<\/i> turns out perfectly fine. It\u2019s just another <b>Blackberry Smoke<\/b> album &#8211; more songs about life, drinking and being a good ol\u2019 Southern boy set to the usual backdrop of groove-driven Southern rock with some country pattering. The jaunty barroom jam of <i>&#8216;What Comes Naturally\u2019<\/i> is an obvious highlight, while the title track\u2019s sludgy, swampy riffs add a bit of heft, and <i>&#8216;Ought To Know\u2019<\/i> and <i>&#8216;Workin\u2019 For A Workin\u2019 Man\u2019<\/i> are pretty much guaranteed smashes for classic rock radio.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>But while <i>&#8216;Like An Arrow\u2019<\/i>\u2019s familiarity is its greatest asset, it\u2019s also its main drawback. It\u2019s an album that feels as though its creators are in complete stasis, making zero progression since their last effort and coming out with a collection of songs that can\u2019t match up to its predecessor. That\u2019s not to mention that, at twelve fairly lengthy tracks, it has a tendency to drag, and even the star power brought by The Allman Brothers\u2019 Greg Allman on closer <i>&#8216;Free On The Wing<\/i> having only a negligible effect.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s kind of missing the point. On its own, <i>&#8216;Like An Arrow\u2019<\/i> is a solid release from <b>Blackberry Smoke<\/b>, not up their with their best but unlikely to do any real harm in the long run. Nevertheless, it\u2019s one to file under &#8216;for diehards only\u2019. <\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Like An Arrow\u2019<\/em> by <strong>Blackberry Smoke<\/strong> is out now on <strong>Earache Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blackberry Smoke<\/strong> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackberrysmoke.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BlackberrySmoke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blackberrysmoke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Luke Nuttall (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nuttall_luke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@nuttall_luke<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since releasing \u2018Holding All The Roses\u2019 back in 2015, Blackberry Smoke have been the name in country-rock circles. And while country-rock itself may be a niche genre outside of the most dedicated classic rock stations, there\u2019s no doubt that the acclaim that album received propelled the Atlanta band to the top of the pile. But, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2815,2242,2816,15029],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-blackberry-smoke","tag-earache-records","tag-like-an-arrow","tag-luke-nuttall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review:\u00a0Blackberry Smoke - Like An Arrow - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since releasing \u2018Holding All The Roses\u2019 back in 2015, Blackberry Smoke have been the name in country-rock circles. 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