Fantastic Negrito: Alive! Review

On July 17, Fantastic Negrito will release his live album Alive! Having won three previous Grammys, this record feels likely to earn him his fourth. It’s a nearly perfect live album, the best record I’ve reviewed this year for Blues Rock Review.

The music is incredible: feeling like a marriage of James Brown’s funk and Led Zeppelin’s metal. The album was recorded from live performances in Italy, the US, Switzerland, and the UK. The music is by turns heavy metal, funky grooves, jazzy progressive rock, gospel, and soulful blues. The lyrical themes range from dire warnings about the state of the world to sad heartbreaking laments, to juvenile rhyming jokes. The scale of the music never feels anything less than epic, whether the song is slow and mournful or fast and growling. It’s eclectic, energetic, and it rips.

The band is made up of Fantastic Negrito himself on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Bryan Simmons on keys and backing vocals, Clark Sims on lead guitar and backing vocals, Lily Stern on bass and backing vocals, and James Small on drums. Every player shines bright here, especially on “In the Pines,” where nearly everyone gets a moment.

At 15 tracks, the record is longer than many recent releases in the blues rock genre, but at no point does it overextend its welcome. Formally, only one track (track 11, “Eat Less Sugar”) is designated as an interlude, but the sixth track “In the Pines” (over ten minutes of mostly instrumental riffing that veers wildly from jazz to old school country to prog rock to gospel) and the fourteenth track “The Duffler,” which feels like a very short (less than two minutes) Zeppelin song. Every single song is unique, distinct, and perfect. As the kids say, no skips.

If I had to pick favorites, I adored “Living With Strangers” for its big bold metal chords, scat-style vocal riffing, and sultry grudge-holding blues, to say nothing of the Black Sabbath rendition about two-thirds into the track. “I Hope Somebody’s Loving You” is also an all-timer, a big soul ballad that feels nothing like the rest of the record, more Chi-Lites than the Funk/Metal vibe the rest of the album cultivates. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the closing track “Please Computer,” a real barn burner of a song that builds intensity throughout to an explosive conclusion.

Alive! Perfectly shows off exactly the creativity, talent, and spirit that made Fantastic Negrito a multi-Grammy winner. A definite top record of 2026 to date, an absolute can’t miss album that will thrill any blues rocker.

The Review: 10/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– Honest Man
– Bullshit Anthem
– I Hope Somebody’s Loving You
– Living With Strangers

The Big Hit

– Living With Strangers