Sage Francis is back with a new album and this time he’s taken a very different route to his creating a sound unlike anything he’s put out before.
Sure he’s had guitar samples across his albums here and there, but this record sees him get rid of his traditional hip hop beats in favour of some stripped down acoustics and nods to punk in places.
Does it work? Well, for the most part it really does and surpasses,as a whole, his past two albums. His lyrics have always been there, regardless of the background, sharp, witty and easily quotable, but the use of real drums, even the dusty ones on Slow Man, really give him a canvas to highlight his vocals, something he does with aplomb.
It’s not a perfect album, there’s a slight dip in the middle but when he rounds it all up with the Yann Tiersen co-produced The Best Of Times [which you can hear below], that lull is forgotten, the beautiful melody emblazoning itself subtly on the listener’s ear drums. Bringing in the likes of Death Cab’s Chris Walla, Mark Linkous and members of Calexico and DeVotchKa was a bold move, but Francis has ridden the storm and come out the otherside with an album well worth listening to.
Abjekt.