Alabama Shakes Return From The Silence With 'I Must Be Dreaming'

Stevie Connor
48 minutes ago
5 min read

By Stevie Connor | The Sound Cafe Journal

After more than a decade away, Alabama Shakes return with an album that sounds less like a comeback and more like three musicians rediscovering why they needed to make music together in the first place.

There are some bands whose return feels like a reunion.

And then there are bands whose return feels like someone has opened a door that you had almost forgotten was there.

Alabama Shakes belong firmly in the second category.

More than a decade after Sound & Color, the Alabama trio are back with their third studio album, I Must Be Dreaming, released August 28 through Island Records.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the record is that it doesn't sound like a band trying to recreate the past.

It sounds like a band that has lived a little more life.

And there is a difference.

When Alabama Shakes first arrived, there was something almost startling about the sound.

Brittany Howard's voice could move from intimacy to intensity in the space of a few bars, while Heath Fogg and Zac Cockrell created the musical foundation around her.

Blues.

Soul.

Rock.

R&B.

Psychedelia.

The band never seemed particularly interested in fitting neatly into one category.

That was part of their appeal.

Now, more than ten years on from their last full-length record, those familiar ingredients remain, but they have been joined by something else.

Experience.

Sometimes Music Finds Its Way Back

The story of I Must Be Dreaming doesn't begin with a record-company meeting or a carefully planned comeback.

It begins rather more simply.

In late 2024, Brittany Howard was invited to perform at Druid City Brewing Company in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at a benefit supporting a local food pantry.

Heath Fogg and Zac Cockrell were there.

They played together.

And something happened.

After years of pursuing separate paths, the musicians found themselves back in the same room, making music together again.

Perhaps they didn't know where that evening would lead.

Perhaps none of them expected it to lead here.

But sometimes music has a funny way of finding the people who made it in the first place.

What began with a performance eventually became the first new Alabama Shakes music in roughly a decade.

And from that reunion came I Must Be Dreaming.

There is something wonderfully human about that.

The album wasn't born because the world demanded another Alabama Shakes record.

It was born because three musicians discovered that the connection between them was still there.

A Different Alabama Shakes

People change.

Musicians change.

Life changes.

The music changes with them.

That is perhaps the most important thing to understand about this album.

The band that made Boys & Girls could not possibly make I Must Be Dreaming in exactly the same way.

And why would they want to?

More than a decade has passed.

Howard has built a powerful solo career. Fogg and Cockrell have travelled their own musical paths. The world around them has changed dramatically.

So the new record doesn't attempt to turn back the clock.

Instead, it looks forward.

Produced by Alabama Shakes alongside six-time Grammy Award winner Shawn Everett, the album was recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios and Blackbird Studio.

The familiar soul and blues influences are still present, but the arrangements stretch much further.

Flute, harpsichord and sitar appear alongside layered vocals, swirling textures and psychedelic colours.

There is space in these songs.

There is atmosphere.

And there are moments when the music feels as though it is deliberately refusing to settle into one place.

The result is recognizably Alabama Shakes, but it is not simply a continuation of what came before.

It is an evolution.

Another Life

The arrival of "Another Life" was significant for more than one reason.

It was the band's first new song in approximately ten years.

Even the title seems appropriate.

Another life.

Another chapter.

Another opportunity.

For a band whose story had appeared to have paused, the song became a doorway back into the world.

But there is no sense that Alabama Shakes are trying to prove that they still belong to the past.

They don't need to.

Instead, "Another Life" feels like a statement of intent.

The musicians are still capable of making something together.

Perhaps more importantly, they still have something they want to say.

A Beautiful And Broken World

The title I Must Be Dreaming also tells us something about the record.

There is beauty in it.

But there is disbelief too.

The world can be extraordinary.

It can also be difficult to understand.

The songs move through love, mortality, human connection and the contradictions of modern life.

There is darkness here, but this isn't an album consumed by darkness.

There is searching.

Searching for meaning.

Searching for connection.

Searching for something hopeful in a world that can sometimes make hope feel like an act of rebellion.

"I Feel Hope Coming" captures that feeling particularly well.

Hope doesn't necessarily mean pretending everything is fine.

Sometimes hope arrives precisely because everything isn't fine.

And perhaps that makes it more valuable.

The Sound Of Experience

The record's greatest strength may be that it gives the musicians room to breathe.

"Garden" carries an atmospheric quality, while other songs move more forcefully into soul, rock and psychedelic territory.

"Tea Time," "Time," "Waist Deep" and "American Dream" all contribute to an album that refuses to remain in one musical lane.

There are moments that feel intimate.

Others feel expansive.

And then there are those unmistakable moments when Howard's voice reminds you exactly why Alabama Shakes made such an impression in the first place.

But even that familiar voice sounds different when surrounded by eleven more years of experience.

The urgency is still there.

So is the grit.

But there is greater patience.

More willingness to let a song breathe.

More confidence in what can happen when the musicians leave room for the unexpected.

That is what makes I Must Be Dreaming more interesting than a simple exercise in nostalgia.

Why The Return Matters

In an industry that often seems obsessed with the next thing, there is something reassuring about a band taking its time.

Alabama Shakes didn't owe anyone another album.

They had already made their mark.

They could have remained a treasured memory of another musical era.

Instead, they found their way back to one another.

And perhaps that is why the record feels so alive.

There is a difference between returning because the market wants you back and returning because there is still music inside you.

I Must Be Dreaming feels like the latter

It isn't about proving that Alabama Shakes still matter.

It is about discovering that the chemistry between three musicians can survive time, distance and separate lives.

Sometimes you don't know what something meant until you have been away from it.

Sometimes you don't realise how much you missed something until you hear it again.

The Dream Continues

There is a beautiful irony in the fact that an album concerned with the contradictions of modern life comes from a band that itself disappeared for more than a decade.

Time passed.

People changed.

The music industry changed.

The world changed.

And yet the connection between these musicians remained strong enough to bring Alabama Shakes back into the room.

Perhaps that is what I Must Be Dreaming is really about.

Not nostalgia.

Not trying to turn the clock back.

But discovering that something you thought was finished may still have another chapter.

Alabama Shakes have returned.

But they haven't come back to remind us who they were.

They have come back to show us who they have become.