Customer Reviews

Favourite Colours

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Favourite Colours" is a successful departure from The Sadies' brand of surfer country music, drawing on the delightful strangeness of the Good brothers, Dallas and Travis, to extend their reach into the realms of Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead. More introspective and meandering this time, The Sadies take the psychedelic elements that have always been underpinning their hard-to-classify music and explore them at greater length. The result is more evidence that The Sadies are one of the most creative bands around today.

The Sadies are new to me;I found this cd in the library. I picked it up because of the picture on the cover--these guys look cool. But to get to the review--if you like the Byrds country period-- you will like this. I liked the instrumentals--contrary to some of the other reviewers. They have a country hippy rock mixed with a strange surf rock guitar at times. The vocals are sort of like the Greatfull Dead meet the Byrds. Great dream trance like feeling when listening to this cd. So if you like Hippy country --get this you won't be disapointed.

I saw the Sadies perform a set of their own and then back up Neko Case in Boston a few weeks ago. I really appreciate the way they sound on Cases' live album, "The Tigers Have Spoken," but after buying their own "Favourite Colours" I wish I knew the music on this CD when I saw them.

We cannot seem to critique music these days without saying that it is "a cross between X and Y." So, okay, here goes my take: the Sadies' sound on "Favourite Colours" is a cross between the Byrds' "Notorious Bird Brothers" and Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting to Fly" (the great Jack Nitzsche-produced Neil Young song).

The studio serves the Sadies well on this release. They are a great live band, as demonstrated by the set I saw and Cases' album, but their intricate playing is really captured on this CD. The bass is nice and full and the drum sound brings to mind the way drums were recorded and mixed in the late `60s and early `70s. This CD is a mixture of vocal numbers (Travis Good's singing brings to mind Commander Cody's John Tichy) and evocative instrumentals.

They were selling the vinyl edition of this album at the Neko Case show. I wish I had bought one, after hearing the CD. (Vinyl for home, CD for the car).

The Sadies have returned with their best album so far. Equal parts Byrds, Wilco, and Meat Puppets, the (incredibly tall) fellows from The Sadies are giants who stand on the shoulders of giants.

If you get the chance to see The Sadies play live, you certainly should do it. I caught them in Nashville in 2003, where they very graciously played about a thousand songs over three incredibly solid sets -- and no two songs sounded alike.

(If you happen to catch The Sadies performing as the backing band for Neko Case, please tell them to come back to Nashville and leave Neko at the Tennessee state line. She's wonderfully talented, but we're tired of her being so condescending every time she visits.)

By now you know they're Canadian and if you don't, then the fact that they spell `Favorite' and `Colors' with a "u" should give you a clue. On their fifth full length album, Toronto's cosmic cowboys serve up their customary combination of psychedelic country-rock instrumentals and songs with dark and brooding lyrics. "Favourite Colours" opens with "Northumberland West", an instrumental that culls and blends Byrds and Outlaws chords. The Sadies then get right to the point of their observation in the next three songs, being that the world is in pretty bad shape what with global terrorism, unending regional wars and impending ecological disaster. That the Byrds influence is strongest on "Favourite Colours" adds sonic context to the consciousness-raising warnings embedded in these songs. A highlight is "Why Be So Curious (Part 3)", which borrows heavily not only from Blue Rodeo's 2002 tune "Already Undone" but also from the Seekers' electric folk-rock. Early Pink Floyd can also be heard in "As Much As Such". Robyn Hitchcock and Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor add guest vocals to songs that wouldn't seem out of place had they been recorded in 1966.

That the Sadies are able to seamlessly weave all of their obviously favorite influences into a sound that is uniquely their own, reveals a band that is creating exciting and vital music that stands a bit outside of the alt-country genre. One gets the sense that their Canadian-ness allows them the freedom to not only assume the stance of not so neutral observers, but to gleefully ransack rock's vaults, garages and groove yards for neat riffs, melodies and styles that help to genuinely rekindle the spirit of the sixties, when speaking one's mind on record got people together and talking. And if you think the closer "Why Would Anybody Live Here?" is a downer, cheer up buckaroo, for The Sadies play such cool music that you definitely want to stick around...at least long enough for their next record! In the meantime, enjoy Favourite Colours now!

On "Favourite Colours" this Toronto-based band turns in a good set. "Song of the Chief Musician (Part 2)" sounds like mid-flight Byrds with the Sadies climaxing in a thunderous guitar storm. "Why Be So Curious (Part 3)" plays at a midtempo pace with jangling guitars and then stops abruptly like a car right before the cliff. Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor chimes in with backing vocals on "A Good Flying Day," "The sun is up, there's no clouds in your way." Of the instrumentals, "A Burning Snowman" stands out with a stately guitar twang that'd make Duane Eddy blush. This set by the Sadies is a good strong outing with sparkling moments, both vocally and instrumentally. Enjoy!

I first heard about these guys because of the Neko Case connection, but they really hold their own on this one. What great sound and musicianship. Bits remind me of a less "indie" The Red Thread, and there's some beautiful Byrdsy stuff on here.

I got turned on to the Sadies via Jim White's "Drill a hole in that substrate...." CD, since the Sadies help him out on a few tracks. Here, The Sadies plumb Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and do a pretty good job at it. The album also has a Grateful Dead "American Beauty" vibe. As far as I'm concerned, they should have ditched most of the instrumental tracks. The highlight here is the last track, "Why would anybody live here". This is really a Robyn Hitchcock song, where they wisely let him do the vocals. It's a good album, but from my perspective, they do a great job helping Jim White out, but the reason the Hitchcock tune is the highlight, is that Hitchcock, unlike the Sadies, takes The Byrds, CSN, etc., and throws them sideways instead of simply trying to recreate them. If you're a Sadies fan, be sure to cross pollinate and get the aforementioned Jim White CD if you don't already have it.