Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors - Strangers No More, Vol. 2 (2024) [Hi-Res]

This is a band at the peak of it's powers. Drew Holcomb and his Neighbors recorded 21 songs over a 2 week period of time, and split them into two volumes. Volume II features a breadth of genre defying recordings of songs about love, loss, betrayal, the passage of time, and the ties that bind and break us as humans. There are songs centered around specific human experiences like Suffering, Forgiveness, Imagination, and Shelter which take the listener through a rock n roll and soulful journey into the unanswerable questions of how to navigate the joy and pain that we all face. There is the classic heartbreaker of Burn, which features Holcomb's wife, Ellie's arena stomping soulful background vocals over guitarist Nate Dugger's wailing guitar solo. The highlights are Soul's a Camera which finds Holcomb taking lyrical photos of a lifetime's worth of memories, reminding us all that we are made up of our stories and experiences, and the soul is indeed a camera. Green Light is a rollicking ode to the band's wives putting up with their troubadour lifestyle. Easy Together is a classic soulful song in the Marvin Gaye family tree, a blatant attempt to help the world make love. Way Back When is a heartbreaking ballad about the passage of time from a father to a son, and the inevitable end that faces us all, while trying to find a legacy to leave behind.