There's a unique challenge to being an established act. Being a new act is challenging as well, of course, because it's hard to get exposure and you always end up getting compared to other artists. Being established is challenging too, though, because you not only are compeeting against other artists, you're also competing against the younger version of yourself, and you have to make music that's different from the old stuff, but not too different, because you want a sense of continuity to what you're doing. When you're as prolific a group of artists as The Sadies – Darker Circles is the band's eighth album in the eleven years they've been together – it's got to be even more difficult.
So how do you meet that challenge? Again, if you're the Sadies, you just don't worry about it and go do your thing - making kickass collections of tunes. If you've listened to the Sadies before, you have a rough idea of what to expect here – alt-country that still manages to have a lot of raucous energy to it, and which keeps your hips swinging just enough to keep you paying attention to the lyrics without you getting lost in the dance. There's not a lot of “innovation” here over the format of their older music, but that's largely because they've found a format that works, and there's enough “new”in the lyrics to make up for it. These are songs that are relevatory, reflective, and resonant – songs of experience, songs of being on the road, songs of real life and all the messiness that goes with it. If you like the feel of something that's familiar, but new at the same time, this is an album for you.
In short: this was a really solid album, full of songs that got me thinking and got my bum shaking at the same time. It's exactly what I needed to listen to this week, especially after being disappointed with the last couple of albums we've looked at on the blog.
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