The Lone Bellow’s What a Time to Be Alive arrives with a backstory that could easily overshadow the music itself—a stolen van, lost recordings, and a fanbase that helped them start over. But what’s most striking is how that disruption seems to have sharpened the band’s sense of purpose. Rather than sounding derailed, the album feels energized, as if the trio leaned into the chaos and came out with something more immediate, more alive.
From the opening moments, there’s a noticeable shift in approach. The songs feel built from the ground up through collaboration, with a looseness that suggests they were discovered as much as written. “After the Rain” sets the tone with a groove that nods to classic Muscle Shoals soul, its warm keys and steady rhythm giving the track a lived-in, almost timeless quality. That sense of movement carries through much of the record, balancing the band’s folk roots with a more expansive, full-band sound.
At the heart of it all are the harmonies, still as rich and emotive as ever. Zach Williams, Brian Elmquist, and Kanene Pipkin have always thrived on vocal interplay, and here it feels especially dynamic—less polished in a studio sense, but more human. Songs like “You Were Leaving” and “I Did It for Love” lean into that emotional directness, pairing heartfelt lyrics with arrangements that swell naturally rather than dramatically. There’s a sense that nothing is being forced; the feeling is allowed to rise on its own.
What makes the album stand out, though, is its balance between intimacy and scale. Tracks like “Common Folk” broaden the lens, offering a communal spirit that celebrates everyday resilience, while quieter moments pull things back into something more personal and reflective. Even when the band dips into familiar themes—love, loss, connection—they approach them with a renewed sense of immediacy, likely shaped by the circumstances that nearly erased the album altogether.
There are moments where the looseness can feel slightly uneven, where the jam-based origins of the songs lead to ideas that don’t fully land. But even then, the energy carries them through. This is a record that values feeling over perfection, and in that sense, its rough edges become part of its charm rather than a distraction.
By the time the title track closes things out on a more subdued, reflective note, What a Time to Be Alive reveals itself as both a celebration and a reckoning. It captures a band reconnecting with why they make music in the first place—not just as craft, but as community. In the end, it’s less about overcoming adversity and more about what that adversity uncovers: a deeper, more collaborative spirit that gives the album its enduring warmth. – Jason Felton