There's something unsettling to me about taking a deceased artist's demos and making a new album out of it; after all, who's to say that the late Chris Bailey of The Saints wouldn't have changed all these tunes around, or sung them differently once the band joined in? That said, the music on this posthumous album from The Saints is so good, that my misgivings are set aside. How great is it to hear new music from The Saints again, am I right?
Long March Through the Jazz Age, out today on Fire Records, features demos from the late Chris Bailey (1956 to 2022) fleshed out into real Saints songs. The results vary from the somewhat rough sounding "Empires (Sometimes We Fall)" to the sublime twang of "Judas", a real highlight here. "Break Away", another gem, compares favorably with the Eighties output of The Saints. That's sort of a remarkable thing to write considering this was built around an unfinished demo.
Long March Through the Jazz Age is impressive. Worries about what this was going to sound like (given how it was put together) are gone within a play of the first few songs. Somehow the rock gods and goddesses have smiled on these saints of punk again. The fire in Bailey, in his voice, is here, and numbers like "A Vision of Grace" are as affecting as you would expect.
These demos of Bailey were brought to life by a bunch of folks, most notably longtime Saints drummer Peter Wilkinson. He gives this material real heft, and he's aided by guitarist Davey Lane (a member of the Saints line-up right before Bailey's death). Sean Carey (You Am I) brings more guitar, and a whole host of contributors add flavor to these robust numbers. What we have here is a fully-alive Saints sound. The down-tempo detours, Aussie country rambles, and ramshackle energy of The Saints are all things we would expect from a new Saints record and we've got them here. This really is a new Saints record and I couldn't be happier about that.
Long March Through The Jazz Age by The Saints is out today via Fire Records.
[Photo: Elisabet Corlin]