Label: earMUSIC
Release date: March 12, 2021
Production: Saga
Album length: 52.42 min
Genre: Art Rock / Progressive Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
“Symmetry” is the first acoustic album in the long history of the veteran Canadian art rockers Saga. It’s also their first album with new bassist Dusty Chesterfield, who replaced founding member Jim Crichton, now retired from music. Saga still have two founding members in singer Michael Sadler and guitarist Ian Crichton, plus longtime keyboardist Jim Gilmour. After their last tour wrapped up in spring 2020, they headed into the studio to record their first acoustic album, which was in many ways a product of all the limits the COVID-19 pandemic put on normal musical life. Still, longtime fans were happy to hear about a new album, even if it was ‘only’ an acoustic one, since the previous record, “Sagacity” (2014), left most of them with pretty mixed feelings.
“Symmetry” takes a completely different approach to Saga classics than we’re used to from this band, because the re-arranged standards are packed with orchestral, jazz and folk elements thanks to the guest strings. Ian Crichton, known above all as an excellent electric guitarist, finally gets the chance to show off his superb acoustic playing on a bigger scale, too. Already on the reworked classic “Pitchman” from the album “Heads Or Tales” (1983), you can pick up some shy but fun touches of jazz rock fusion. The Saga standards that already had a strong symphonic-instrumental stamp in the original come out especially well, like the masterpiece “Images” from the album “Images At Twilight” (1979). That one is the peak of “Symmetry” and, in its new outfit, sounds almost ‘cinematic’, like the soundtrack to some film.
The rather unexpected pick from “House of Cards” (2001), “Always There”, which is dedicated to all Saga fans, wins you over with its altered pastoral atmosphere built on acoustic guitar harmonies that sit perfectly under Sadler’s wonderful vocal performance. Among the unexpected standards that come out even better in acoustic form than in the original, the romantic “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” from the album “Steel Umbrellas” (1993) stands out. It was already a splendid ballad in the original, with keyboardist Jim Gilmour on lead vocals. He shines again on the acoustic version of “No Regrets” from “Worlds Apart” (1981), while the acoustic version of “Tired World”, which comes from the debut “Saga” (1978), delivers yet another highlight of “Symmetry”, mostly thanks to a guitar solo with some surprising jazzy touches.
The newly re-arranged Saga standards in their acoustic and partly orchestral outfits come across as fun and easy on the ear, so “Symmetry” will surely please all the longtime fans of the legendary Canadians. Anyone who has wondered how Saga would sound with added strings and acoustic instead of electric guitar finally has their answer. That’s exactly why “Symmetry” ends up as one of their most prog-rock-minded studio projects to date, even though it contains no new songs. That’s also the main reason it’s mostly the longtime fans who will go for it, and it’ll help them wait a bit more easily for a ‘regular’ studio album with new material.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Pitchman
2. The Perfect Time To Feel Better
– Time To Go
– The Perfectionist
– We Hope You’re Feeling Better
3. Images – Chapter 1
4. Always There
5. Prelude # 1
6. Say Goodbye To Hollywood
7. Prelude # 2
8. The Right Side Of The Other Hall
– Footsteps in the Hall
-On The Other Side
You Were Right
9. La Foret Harmonieuse
10. Wind Him Up
11. No Regrets – Chapter 5
12. Tired World – Chapter 6
Lineup:
Michael Sadler – vocals
Jim Gilmour – keyboards, clarinet, vocals on tracks 6 and 11
Ian Crichton – guitar
Dusty Chesterfield – bass guitar, keyboards
Mike Thorne – drums, backing vocals
