Darker Circles, The Sadies’ latest work, is appropriately titled. The album is as cyclical as it is dark. Guitar chords and drum riffs allude to previous tracks constantly, building a solid and steady album that concludes beautifully.
The darkness of Darker Circles is tangible from the start. Distorted swirling guitars on the opening track, “Another Year Again,” build a timeless morose tone the band keeps throughout the entire album. Dallas Good sings, “You can make it up so high that the only place that’s left to go is down.”
The album explores the darker side of individual struggle with a brilliant country-rock perspective. Songs like “Cut Corners” and “Tell Her What I Said” have the same reverb and chord structure that the Sadies used with Neko Case on tracks in Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Though they don’t always emote, the Sadies use their sound to build a poignant piece of reflection on regret and self-doubt.
More impressive than the congruent tone of Darker Circles is the album’s structure. Each song contains little traces of the others, allusions that come off so slightly that they’re barely noticeable. The songs have the just right amount of contamination from the ones that came before it. Every track is a different experience, but they all connect in a looping web of guitar and reverb, leading to a final climax on the 11th, and most interesting track.
Ten tracks make up the first half of the 11-track album. I say this because the last song, “Ten More Songs,” is the whole album repeated in a genius, almost tactical display of technical cunning. It’s at this point that you’ll realize just how structured this seemingly unorganized self-reference in the album is. It’s the moment when the darker circles become completely illuminated. It’s awesome.
The Sadies should be immensely proud of Darker Circles. The album has just the right amount of emotion to fit its pristine structure, and that makes it great. The often-divided fans of the blurry and dysfunctional alt-country genre will unite in their appreciation of this album.
