This side-trip EP marks the Revivalists’ first stab at a two-way collaboration—except in this case, it’s a collaboration between a band and a studio. Alabama’s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals is awash with history—and in truth, the history is more about the people who recorded there (Aretha, the “Brown Sugar” Stones, most of the Stax roster) than the place itself. But the Revivalists were out to soak up the vibe of the studio and to catch a sense of place with these recordings, and they succeeded.

Five of the seven songs are remakes of their best-known tunes, and the arrangements don’t usually vary much; it’s the warmer and deeper sonics of the room that make the difference. “You and I” kicks off with the same bass groove as the original but here it sounds more vivid, and Zack Feinberg seems to kick in a Stones homage with his new guitar line. Similarly, the room echoes on “Change” add a bit of mystery to an already strong number. The one new song, “Bitter End” is appropriately the most Stax-sounding song the band has written, and the cover is “To Love Somebody,” the Bee Gees tune that Otis Redding had intended to cover before his death. The version here is slower than Otis would probably have done it, but it gives David Shaw his chance to open up and emote.

It’s hard to resist calling this the band’s version of U2’s Rattle & Hum—both are heartfelt roots detours and neither works all the time (in this case, the slowed-down and gospel-ized “Wish I Knew You” is just too weighty, though it makes sense that they’d want to rethink their greatest hit). But it plays to one of the Revivalists’ strengths, their sense of music history—and if this means their Achtung Baby is coming next, so much the better.