A little less concise than the Black Crowes' excellent debut album, "The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion" doesn't feature quite as many obvious singles as its predecessor.
It's still a pretty good album, though.
Opening with the gritty hard rock of "Sting Me", "Harmony" mixes Rolling Stones-like rockers with Faces-like ballads, and while the production is often too dense and messy and, well, grunge-like (ew!), most of the songs hold up quite well.
The two best-selling singles off "Harmony" ("Remedy" and the ballad "Thorn In My Pride") were only minor Billboard hits, and none of them cracked the top 40, but the album itself debuted at #1, and that's a pretty good picture of "Harmony". It's a solid album with very few bad songs, although if truth be told there aren't too many truly excellent ones, either.
"Harmony" is not an album filled with hits, and overall it doesn't hold up quite as well as 1990's well-crafted "$hake Your Moneymaker". But it is still better than what the Crowes have been putting out since the mid-90s.
3 stars.