The moment the opening track, “Riverview Fog” starts, you get the feeling that you’ve heard all this before, but that the cards have been reshuffled in such a manner that you don’t care. And you don’t care because it is good!
That is Travis and Dallas Good, the Toronto brothers, bringing back their, The Sadies project back online after four years. And it is great to have them back, as their latest album, “Northern Passages” is another one to enjoy.
The Sadies have been around for quite a while, and with their amalgam of everything late-Sixties, with a slight accent on “Sweetheart of The Rodeo” Byrds, you would think they have been around since then. Like for example, another thoroughly eclectic band they have been compared to, NRBQ.
Well, they are not really NRBQ, and they have been around for “just” a bit over 20 years. Still, they have managed to cover the ground thoroughly with their 10 albums - country rock, with the accent on both, surf, garage, spaghetti western music, you name it. If you wish, they can do it even in one song like on “There Are No Words Here”, when the song takes you from a claustrophobic garage somewhere in Toronto suburbs to open and easy going country plains.
What makes The Sadies such a great proposition is their full sense of melody and impeccable playing. Try “It’s Easy (Like Walking)” the song has such a great sense of melody and while you know all the elements that you can hear, they are just re-shuffled in a manner that just fits perfectly.
“The Elements Song” is the real treat here. If you ever wondered what would a cross between “Forever Changes” era Love and the same era The Birds sound, try this one out.
It seems that not everybody is a fan, some reviewers being renowned as knowledgeable in Americana and similar sounds find this album a waste of time. Ok, maybe. But only if you waste your time along with it. Oh, maybe then it would not be wasted. Afterward, you can ride into the sunset with the fitting closing instrumental, "The Noise Museum".
Personally, after four years of absence, it is great to have The Sadies back and it is easy for me to say that Travis and Dallas did good, again.
