Upon inserting their self-titled disc, one could take The Sights for a White Stripes rip-off band, being from Detroit and all, but to not move past the first track would be to do this band a massive injustice.
There’s a taste of Jack White in Eddie Baranek’s vocals, to be sure, but there’s a whole lot more too…the swagger of Mick Jagger and even a taste of Axl Rose, and it’s such a relief to hear a singer in the fairly trendy “garage” genre who can actually sing.
The Sights deliver more than just garage-blues here–the organ and piano bass call to mind sixties and seventies psychedelica ala the Beatles and the Stones. Unabashed guitar solos and sassy lyrics heat things up on “Last Chance” with “She wears her arrogance like it was a brand new dress/but nobody wears it like that anymore,” and “Your picture looks good in the obituaries” on “Frozen Nose.” Poppy numbers “Backseat” and “Waiting On A Friend” provide plenty of attitude with stripped-down foot-tapping country-ish songs. The organ and piano bass might seem like a gimmick, but it manages to complement, not overcomplicate their sound.
I often say that the best music feels timeless. Rolling Stones songs are just as sexy and fresh the thousandth time around, while so many ’80’s synthpop bands and their current revivalists died off quickly after the initial flurry of sales faded. There’s a rock radio station where I live called Quality Rock that will skip from a Springsteen number to the Doors to Tom Petty to Elton John, and somehow I can picture this band fitting into their playlist. It’s quality rock.
