Review: The Sadies- Darker Circles

The Sadies have been one of the few modern bands able to create an ache of nostalgia for music past. If we were to include all their collaborations since 1998 Darker Circles would be their thirteenth studio album, Darker Circles is far more pensive than its predecessor Country Club (feat. John Doe), it pains me to use such a cliché but it really does sound like the soundtrack to an unwritten movie. Guitarist brothers Dallas and Travis Good, drummer Mike Belitsky and bassist Sean Dean have paired with Jayhawk and  producer Gary Louris to make an album that MUST be listened to from start to finish, that means no searching for singles.

Just the right combination of surf, grunge, rock, country, and psychedelic with a big hit of blues, Darker Circles opens with ‘Another Year Again’ which has a wicked body shaken fuzz drenched guitar solo near the end that totally turns the song around somehow reminds me of 13^th Floor Elevators (If you’ve seen High Fidelity you’ll know it, thank you Dallas Wheeler for introducing me). While ‘Cut Corners’  slowly comes to a boil with blues so effing heavy it hurts.

The Sadies have long been the most recognized rock-country band from Toronto in the pat ten years, if not Canada. They seem to have a knack for sounding like the blues influenced boys of the 60’s and 70’s, Zeppelin, The Eagles and the like while still holding their own.  My only complaint, not a fan of the banjo on track 9 ‘ Choosing To Fly’, it reminds of square-dancing in grade 3, which says a lot about my emotional development at age 8, the song is totally somber and bitter, as was I towards square-dancing. None the less a bomb album that my Dad stole from me within days.

The Sadies are playing at Lee’s Palace on May 22