Take one look at the cover of Darker Circles, The Sadies’ new album, and it’s clear that a square band is making moody moves, trying to muddy up their retro reputation. The album proves more successful than its lazy and garish cover in that respect; though by no means an unexpected departure from their rootsy template, Darker Circles is a respectable collection of solid, somber alt-country songs.
Paring back the surf-rock affectations, The Sadies draw inspiration from new (but still old) sources. Less psych and more psychedelic, less Nuggets and more Dark Side of the Moon, Darker Circles finds the Canadian quartet spacing out their arrangements, introducing prog progressions into their still tight compositions. The Pink Floyd moves are most evident on “Cut Corners” — a brazen impression of the classic Gilmour guitar sound — but are also recalled in “Ten More Songs,” Darker Circle’s closing cut. But even on the more traditional songs, like “The Quiet One,” Gary Louris’ sparse, echoic production efficiently uses reverb to spacey, wistful effect. “Violet and Jeffery Lee” — an immaculately finger-picked bit of ballad storytelling equal parts The Move, The Byrds, and Blue Öyster Cult — displays The Sadies’ skill at piecing together different branches of psychedelia’s family tree.
The Sadies’ influences have always been central to their sound, but their talent is in the incorporation of disparate elements, rather than their willingness to experiment. These changes to their sound are hardly shocking; apples to apples, The Sadies are still stomping around the same old stylistic grounds. Darker Circles is reverent to a fault. The workman-like attitude is deliberate and carefully considered — as evidenced by the record’s self-referential bookends — but it also negates any sense of relevance. The Sadies are a band out of time, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge any musical progress made since the early 70s.
“Ten More Songs,” the instrumental that closes out the album, condenses all of Darker Circle’s influences and homages into four minutes. It works as precis and as a thesis statement for the record, but fails to inspire any stronger feelings. For all of the album’s studied virtuosity, the mandolin solo in the middle of the “Tell Her What I Said” is far more affecting than any prog-rock statements of intent. The Sadies are most successful when emphasizing the emotional, traditional core of Darker Circles rather than its academic facade.
More about: The Sadies
