NEW ALBUM: NATHANIEL RATELIFF AND THE NIGHT SWEATS | THE FUTURE

Denver singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff returned with the Night Sweats for "The Future," the band’s third studio album, recorded in his new Broken Creek Studio outside Denver. "The Future," which feels almost like a tribute album, is a collection of songs that celebrate the band’s influences from the worlds of rock, pop, soul, and R&B. Rateliff has produced two of the most emotionally wrenching albums of the last decade in two years. He followed "Tearing at the Seams," the incredibly successful 2018 album with his backing band, the Night Sweats, with his 2020 solo album, "And It’s Still Alright." Both albums crackled with emotional energy born of Rateliff’s musical catharsis, as he came to grips with childhood family tragedies, his problems with alcohol, his divorce and the loss of his friend and mentor Richard Swift. This departing from familiar territory and paying tribute to key influences on the first song sets the tone for the rest of the album. "The Future" sounds like a band at play, unleashed in a new studio and isolated because of the pandemic, exploring the musical influences it’s always loved. Nathaniel Rateliff’s meteoric rise over the past six years, from endless touring in a van and playing small shows to performing on “Saturday Night Live” and opening for The Rolling Stones, has been at least partially fueled by the tragedies and challenges the 43-year-old had to face in his life. "The Future" is unique in Rateliff’s catalogue because the album doesn’t consume and ache with catharsis. Instead, it feels like a party where there’s something to celebrate.