|
Left Over Right is The Sights’ fifth album since they burst onto the Detroit scene in the late-’90s as teens, and their second since going on hiatus in the back half of the 2000s. Since returning to action, lead singer and only original band member left, Eddie Baranek has toned down some of the garage rock bashing that defined their raucous early years, and focused in on development as a songwriter and singer (his soulful voice compares favorably with Steve Marriot). Left Over Right is a testament to Baranek’s maturation, with he and the current five-man line-up of the band sweetening their songs with Beatles-y touches like harmonies, intricate arrangements and thickly layered instrumentation that makes the most out of Jim Diamond’s production techniques. The brilliant garage rock producer’s (White Stripes, The Ponys, The Dirtbombs…etc.) skill behind the board really allows the band go the extra mile, making the studio as big a part of The Sights’ sound as anything else. Everything that the album has to offer comes together magically on lead single “Fool (I Can’t Stop Making Out With You)” which is a catchy strut of a rock song that recalls their early swagger but with horns, organs and harmonica making it a large-scale production. Elsewhere on the album they make a good case to be this millennium’s Badfinger (minus all the death and depression) on “Bad Man” and “Anything To Anyone”, and find a way to add gospel flourishes to high-energy rock on “Not As Pretty”. The only song they fall flat on is “You Are The Sunshine”, a cloying attempt at cutesy ’60s balladry that even The Monkees might have dismissed as too fluffy. Cast that track aside and Left Over Right is the perfect album to give the person in your life who complains that they don’t make bands like they used to anymore.
CONDITION: NEW
TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
A1 Left Over Right
A2 Feel (I Can't Stop Making Out With You)
A3 Prayer
A4 Mercy
A5 Bad Man
SIDE B
B1 Anything To Anyone
B2 You Are The Sunshine
B3 Not As Pretty
B4 Could Not Call It Love
B5 Easy Living
|