Sad Lovers & Giants
The Weight of Forgotten Dreams
Voight-Kampff Records
The Weight of Forgotten Dreams, the tenth album by Sad Lovers & Giants comes some eight years since the band’s first reactivation era LP Mission Creep, and finds the cult English post-punk act both dreamy and dismayed. Being downcast is of course nothing new for SLaGs, the band having cut their teeth on melancholia in their eighties heyday. And like their classic records, they make sure to spike the mopeyness with some proper big pop-leaning rockers, that keep things moving. That said, the weight of this record’s lyrical concerns often render it somber, even at its most energized.
And to be clear, hearing a band of Sad Lovers & Giants address the state of the world is a good thing. And while there’s a certain awkwardness to some of the ways political and social issues are addressed, sincerity and commitment carry the day. On “Repentence Day” vocalist Garçe Allard intones “You tried to tell us how you’d make us great again/But we were great until you came” and starts the final verse with “Speaking to those in 2055/I hope that you’re all still alive”, sentiments could elicit a groan if they weren’t being sung by someone who deeply felt them. Alternately, there’s wryness at play that works to their advantage as well; they get away with invoking The Tempest into the chimey sing-song fantasy “Survival Plan”, and the album’s undoubted highlight “Think Like a Roman” goes all in on its central metaphor, dropping references to Horace and numerous latin aphorisms, all in service of a bright, uplifting guitar lick that sets the tone perfectly.
And to their credit, the band sound tremendous here, as good as at any point in their now 40 plus year history. Garçe’s voice is as clean and clarion as ever, the guitars from Tony McGuinness (incidentally, a member of trance megastars Above & Beyond) strum and peel of riffs in lively fashion, and the rhythm section of Ian Gibson and Nigel Pollard sit right in the pocket, never overly flashy but always doing something to keep the songs moving along. Instrumental cuts “Sci-Fi Theme” and closer “Astolat” really do highlight their capacity to for good arrangements and ideas; the former revolving around a big swirly keyboard solo from synthesist Will Hicks, and the latter tying a bow on the LP’s elegiac feelings with an oboe of all things. It really is remarkable how close to a classic SLaGs record it all sounds from a production and songwriting standpoint, if not a bit cleaner and more hi-fi, although thankfully not overly glossy.
Sad Lovers & Giants are a niche band in the world of dreamy post-punk, but their following is loyal and has kept the flame burning for them through numerous stops and stars over the decades. With that in mind, its hard to imagine anyone who has any investment in the band finding much fault with The Weight of Forgotten Dreams. It just sounds so perfectly like Sad Lovers & Giants in all ways, with all their sonic characteristics and their various instrumental and lyrical idiosyncrasies in effect. And despite being informed by our civilization’s alarmingly rapid decline, its constancy ends up being a comfort.
