Album Review: The Sights (Self Titled)
Once again, The Sights give to the music world an amalgamation of garage rock and fuzzed out 60′s-sounding bliss that swings back and forth from raging guitar rockers to finger-snap, toe-tap inducing pop songs – and yes, even on its third album, the band still manages to be one of the few musical acts capable of making that combination sound as vibrant and fresh as it should.
Perhaps it’s the way Eddie Baranek’s guitar solos sound as powerful as arena rock leads, whether they’re placed in an unnervingly catchy guitar pop song like “Will I Be True?” or a full-throttle boogie rocker such as “Last Chance;” then again, it could also be the way Bobby Emmitt adds flourishes of organ throughout the album, which adds depth to his ‘piano bass’ playing. Drummer Mike Trombley’s no slouch either, showing the ability to play sparsely and effectively on slower numbers (“Baby’s Knocking Me Down”) while still abusing his drumset admirably when the songs call for it (i.e., the aforementioned “Last Chance”).
The individual and collective performances of The Sights are only half of the story of this album, though. Even great playing is worthless without solid songs; thankfully, Baranek and Company were smart enough to load this album up with well-written compositions. The band members’ reverance for music is made immediately evident via the pair of cover songs that serve as musical bookends for this album. The opening cover of the Rev. Thomas Dorsey’s gospel hymn, “I’m Gonna Live the Life I Sing About in My Song,” is an intense blast of soul, while the album closes with a pleasantly raucous and funky ‘hidden’ take on The Faces’ “Stay With Me,” which seems custom-made to blare from jukeboxes at seedy corner bars.
Oddly enough, the original material actually says more about The Sights musical interests than the covers. The band’s apparent love for catchy pop songs (the blissful “Suited Fine” and syrupy “Backseat”) balances out with surprisingly effective balladry (“Scratch My Name in Sin” and the honky-tonking jaunt “Waiting on a Friend”). The Sights show a sense of humor with “Just Got Robbed,” which is more fun than a song about getting mugged should be, though the band gets serious again real quickly when the slinky groove of “Frozen Nose” flares into a killer guitar wail multiple times. A few of the Emmitt-fronted pop songs are borderline dreamy, specifically the psychedelia of “Suited Fine,” with its lulling vocals and random organ interlude (the killer guitar solo doesn’t hurt, either), and “Baby’s Knocking Me Down,” which actually sounds an awful lot like a slowed-down Brendan Benson track.
The only problem with this album is that it’s bound to be overlooked by folks that claim to be disillusioned and jaded by the ‘garage’ and ‘psychedelic ’60′s’ designations placed around The Sights. There’s far too much attention paid to the fact that this material is derivative of a great many influences; it’s obvious that the band is very self-aware of this fact, and these three guys wear it on their sleeves rather proudly. Despite the band’s so-called ‘deriviative’ nature, The Sights have put together a damned fine album here. Hopefully, the discouraging lot can refrain from talking smack long enough to listen to the record and find that out for themselves. – Gary Blackwell