The Incredible Machine

2010 release, the highly anticipated fourth album from the Grammy Award-winning Country duo consisting of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush. The Incredible Machine was co-written and co-produced by Nettles and Bush. Features the single 'Stuck Like Glue'. read more..

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Pretty Awesome by Brian M. Williams
Sugarland is one of the most interesting bands out there right now. Notice I didn't say interesting country bands. They've never been that interested in fitting their sound within a narrow set of definitions, and even their first album with Kristen Hall didn't sound all that country to me. They've always enjoyed incorporating other styles and genres within their music. I've listened to Jennifer Nettles since her first band, Soul Miner's Daughter, and have always appreciated the fact that she has such a wide range, both in her vocal ability and her stylistic choices. She loves good music, and isn't afraid to make an album that has a reggae song jammed up next to a song that incorporates rap, funky flute, and soul diva style belting (on her first Jennifer Nettles Band album.)



So the fact that The Incredible Machine is pretty much a straight-ahead pop album doesn't surprise me one bit. On their last cd, Love On the Inside, they even included a song titled "The Very Last Country Song." If you look at the title, it might have been a bit of foreshadowing.



All that aside, I think The Incredible Machine is one of their strongest albums yet, if not their best. Many of their past albums have had one or two skippable tracks, the ones I think of as filler. This one demands your attention from the beginning. Many people have written that the music on this album is simple, or repetitive. I think that what they are missing is in the title. The concept of the album and the title song revolves around the human heart, and how it is an "incredible machine." Sugarland attempts to create music that echoes the rhythm and feel of a beating heart, played out by a machine. Therefore, there is a very structured, rhythmic and simple feel to many of the songs, and the repeating words in the chorus of many of the songs evoke a heartbeat. It's a neat trick, conceptually, that ties each song into an overall theme. The lyrics on many of the songs are simple, and primal, like the sound of a heart, and the emotions that come from the heart-just strong, basic, and sometimes overwhelming-like those moments when the heart rules the head-think of Molly Ringwald's character in "Pretty in Pink" just in love with a guy she knows she shouldn't be in love with. Nothing else seems to matter, and she can't think of anything else. That character might be the girl singing "Tonight". Jennifer and Kristian are talented songwriters who can really capture the essence of an emotion.



This album is meant to be heard in one sitting. There's almost a story in the sequence of the songs. Sugarland has said they tried to create a soundtrack to an imaginary contemporary John Hughes movie. It's all in the record-all the emotions, the angst, the comedy, and the lovely feeling of falling in love for the first time. The Incredible Machine isn't good country music. It's just good music. The genre--well, who cares? If it's good, it's good, never mind trying to label it. Appreciate it for what it is, which is the sound of two artists making the music they want to make, on their own terms, and having a really good time doing it.