Dallas Good’s last album with The Sadies is their best ever.
This seems to be the month of re-evaluating bands I’ve taken for granted. After revisiting two decades worth of albums that I’ve underrated by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the same thing has happened with The Sadies, who have just released their best album. I’ve seen them live more times than I can recall — my hazy first memory is them lurking behind Neko Case at the Hideout in 1998 like shadowy, giant Canadian ents, when they collaborated on the 7″ Murder Ballads EP on Chicago’s Bloodshot records. The band’s virtuosic blend of country/folk rock, Americana, surf, psych and garage noir always made for engaging shows. However they never quite nailed an album that held my attention all the way through. In retrospect, Favourite Colours (2004), New Seasons (2007), Darker Circles (2010) and Internal Sounds (2013) merit reconsideration. Sadly, it wasn’t until just before Dallas Good passed away that they nailed their best recording on Colder Streams.
Good himself wrote the seemingly tongue-in-cheek liner notes that declared the album “by far, the best record that has ever been made by anyone. Ever.” Yet I think he also knew it was something special, with production help from Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, they finally captured their live energy while also sounding larger than life with booming bass and reverb in all the right places. While they touched on psychedelia on a few of their previous albums, their garage psych element is more prominent than ever on this one, which is right up my alley. “Stop and Start,” “Better Yet” and “Ginger Moon” tap into 1967-68 era Who (thanks largely to Mike Belitsky’s powerful Keith Moon fills) as filtered through Guided By Voices at their most focused, along with bits of 80s Paisley Underground, which, on the hooky “So Far for So Few” intermingles with R.E.M.’s mid-80s territory. My favorite track so far is “No One’s Listening,” which nails the brooding atmospherics of The Smithereens’ “Blood and Roses” and the menacingly spectral harmonies of prime Blue Öyster Cult. It also features a guest solo from Jon Spencer, another lifer who’s found new artistic inspiration recently.
There’s plenty of their signature folk rock, such as on the ballad “All the Good,” which compares favorably to prime Handsome Family. “More Alone” is a top notch Cosmic Americana tune fused with garage noir thanks to the brief appearance of a dark, tremolo Ennio Morricone-worthy guitar lick. “Message to Belial” engages the demon with some of the most haunting melodies the Moody Blues wish they could claim. They call back the Morricone vibe on the triumphantly moody instrumental closer, “End Credits,” all the more bittersweet knowing it would be the conclusion of their last album with their leader before he succumbed to heart failure.
