![]() ![]() ![]() Not in a sad way, you just experience-I don’t know! It’s an overwhelming feeling. “I love that thing that happens in me when I get surprised by a song that I’m listening to or while I’m playing,” Rateliff says, “where you just feel overwhelmed. Music that had legs would cause him to write more. Rateliff says he learned what would challenge him and the band, what would help them grow. Some friends came around, they remembered a friend and peer who’d passed not too long ago, producer and musician Richard Swift. He did some work around his house from the spring until about June or July. He hadn’t had a proper rest for about six years. At the time, his house was also being renovated (since he’d planned to be on the road). Like many musicians, his big plans had been dashed. Rateliff had felt discouraged coming back home from a disrupted tour in March 2020. “I ran with his advice, honestly,” Rateliff says. The result is well-seasoned work, not slap-to-the-face sounds. For an artist known for screaming, “Son of a bitch, get me a drink!” in his first hit, today Rateliff exhibits great touch and nuance in his work. More recently, Rateliff released a more tender solo record, And It’s Still Alright, to great acclaim. Finally, though, Rateliff did with The Night Sweats’ song, “ S.O.B.” The romper was all over popular radio. Like any city where music is prized (Nashville, Seattle, Atlanta), there are local stars that can’t seem to break through nationally. For years, Rateliff toiled in the Denver music scene. The house stands because the foundation is strong. I really cleaned the shit out of those toilets.”īut it’s hard work that puts one in the position to succeed. ![]() “Still took pride in it,” Rateliff says, “I did it really well. He endeavored to find the joys in what he could. Even when he was a janitor for a “high school that I should have been going to” when he was 16- or 17 years old, he took pride in the work. As he says it, he had a lot of bad jobs over the years. ![]() An instant classic of 11 songs, the album presents something more sustainable, interesting, and indeed open-a songwriter and band growing into bigger questions and sounds, into a future that allows them to remain recognizable but be so much more compelling than some denim-clad caricature.From a young age, Rateliff has worked hard. The result is The Future, the third Night Sweats album but the first to capture this octet’s true depth and breadth. When Rateliff returned from his pandemic-truncated solo tour in March 2020, he struggled with the same question that vexed so many of us then-what now? Fortunately, he returned to his Colorado homestead and penned a set of songs that synthesized his introspection with his anthemic inclinations. To wit, is there any other modern act capable of revving up stadium crowds for The Rolling Stones while also appearing on Saturday Night Live and CMT Crossroads and at NPR’s Tiny Desk in short order? They’ve had hits, sure, but their combustible mix of soul and rock quickly cemented them as the rare generational band who balanced ecstatic live shows with engrossing and rich records. Since 2015, Rateliff has led his denim-clad, horn-flanked Night Sweats, supplying the zeal of a whiskey-chugging Pentecostal preacher to songs about this world’s shared woes. It took Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats less than five years to become one of the most recognizable new forces in contemporary rock ’n’ roll. ![]()
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