Even voorstellen - The Saxophones - No Time for Poetry
Out 07/11 (full time hobby/konkurrent)
‘Too Big for California’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Ex7YtAu5o
The Saxophones today announce their new album ‘No Time For Poetry, to be released via Full Time Hobby on Nov 7th and share first single ‘Too Big For California’.
Marking the band’s 4th full studio release, No Time for Poetry expands on the natural breeziness of 2023’s To Be A Cloud with a new sense of angst and tension, questioning the current state of the world and their place within it. Musically, the spectre of mid-period Leonard Cohen hangs over the record, and the band acknowledge this was a key inspiration - “that’s the biggest touchstone - the kind of dystopian songs he was writing with a satirical attitude helped set the darker political tone of this record” – Alexi Erenkov
Husband-and-wife duo Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice are augmented on the album by their regular collaborator Richard Laws on bass, synthesizers and keyboards, as well as multi-instrumentalist Frank Maston who provided production support and the album was mixed by Noah Georgeson (Andy Shauf, Cate Le Bon, Marlon Williams).
Lead track ‘Too Big for California’ sets the tone with evocative imagery (“Trampling the lupine, admiring the fog”), giving the listener agency in determining the exact meaning, over a wind synthesizer solo that sounds like downtown city lights. Alexi’s rich baritone balances anxiety and resignation, singing the line “The shanty towns are burning” with an intimate lilt, before the payoff: “Still I’m … doing fine”. Nowhere is this understatement more present than on the denouement when he sings: “The vineyards here are burning / Now I'm … quite concerned”.
Alexi expands on the meaning: “Despite California being very liberal, it still has a lot of issues that are not being resolved - the homeless epidemic and frequency and scope of wildfires being top of mind for most people I know. There's a disturbing way in which one can still go on living a normal life in the midst of all this suffering and risk. I was trying to put the feeling of drinking wine with friends while the hills burn into song. There's a culture of impotence, a lack of will I was trying to capture."
Whilst the influence of Leonard Cohen hangs over the record, the synth pads and vocal samples on the almost interstitial ‘I Fought the War’ bring to mind neon-soaked soundtracks to Drive, The Last Showgirl or 80s LA cop dramas, as much as I’m Your Man or The Future.
‘America’s the Victim’ is set upon a bedrock of stuttering Rhodes, with staccato, woozy bass clarinet and alto flute weaving around the muted Beach Boys-style bass. Lyrically, it connects back with the themes of ‘Too Big for California’, satirically suggesting: “White man’s the victim / America’s the victim / Somehow you never knew”.
“I get really frustrated by historically dominant groups (white, Christian, heterosexual, etc.) acting like they are persecuted when they are still the ones holding almost all of the power,” says Alexi. “It's a strange pull where you have these groups that have shaped most of modern history, but they can see that they are on a path of losing power and so they have this very victim-based reaction to criticism. I do think they're correct to see their cultural influence waning, but for them to identify as martyrs feels out of touch with the suffering other groups have been experiencing for centuries. A huge inspiration for my approach to this song - and much of the album - was Randy Newman's Sail Away. I never want to write a song about how wrong someone is, it just feels too literal; it's much more satisfying to actually sing satirically from your opponent’s position and let them figure out what you're trying to say. I've always felt Newman does that brilliantly."
The album is a comment on our society’s priorities as well as the culture of fear that is starting to spread. The lyric “Have you seen the new guillotine / Town square will never be the same / I haven't changed my mind / I’m just less likely to complain” is speaking to the fear many are feeling in our country. I know it's an unease people have felt throughout history here, but this is the first time in my lifetime there are signs even the privileged might not be protected if they're on the left side of the political spectrum. At the end of the day, I just wanted to write a sexy album that said “Fuck you” to Trump. I didn't want to wallow, I wanted the record to feel good and not preach, but I also wanted my music to be relevant and address this moment. The unkindness I'm seeing is just incomprehensible to me. Being a father of two little boys, the easiest way for me to put it is that there's not a single quality I would want my own children to embody that our president and his many acolytes exhibit. The support and celebration of this egregiously self-serving man really leaves me feeling lost in my country."
No Time for Poetry is a snapshot of The Saxophones personal and political reflections and a questioning of the uncertain world around them, realised through a mixture of wry resignation and gauzy optimism.
Track List
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