One word often used to describe Tedeschi Trucks Band over the group’s 15-year existence is retro, which makes the title of their sixth album, Future Soul, an ironic departure. Musically, Future Soul doesn’t remake the band’s gumbo of classic rock, blues, soul and jazz into something futuristic, but it does reposition Tedeschi Trucks Band as more pop-forward and accessible. From the opening bluesy riffs of “Crazy Cryin’,” it’s clear this slinking groove is still classic TTB, driven by Derek Trucks’ one-of-a-kind guitar tone, Susan Tedeschi’s soulful vocals and the 10-piece backing band’s expressive horns and backing vocals. It is, however, a contrast to 2022’s I Am the Moon, a four-part, two-plus-hour song cycle that blended tight songwriting with expansive, jazzy excursions.

On Future Soul, helmed by pop and hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo and Trucks, no song extends past five minutes, Tedeschi’s vocals are front-and-center, particularly on ballads like “Who Am I.” Meanwhile, Trucks’ solos, while no less incendiary, are more compact. A collaborative effort, Trucks, Tedeschi, singer Mike Mattison (who takes a lead vocal on the stone-y “Under The Knife”), keyboardist Gabe Dixon, drummer Tyler Greenwell and Mattison’s Scrapomatic partner Paul Olsen share songwriting credits throughout. The hard-charging title track is a battle cry for analog rock: “There’s a bomb in the building but we don’t look back/ Well, they want it on paper but we got it on wax,” Tedeschi cries out. “Hope your future’s got soul in it.”

The album’s cover art depicts the married band leaders as comic-book superheroes tasked with saving the world from a laser-shooting robot, armed with their guitars. Future Soul isn’t likely to save the world, but it does continue to position TTB as saviors of a classic-rock sound that isn’t going away anytime soon.