The Saxophones
To Be A Cloud
Full Time Hobby
2 June 2023
The Saxophones create a mood that is entirely their own. The duo make music that is deceptively risky, balancing on a knife edge: on one side is a kind of chilled-out, margaritas-at-the-mall apocalyptica and on the other is a combination of widescreen, salt-tinged psychedelia and dusky bar-room jazz, where big skies and big ideas vie with personal heartache and subdued, nostalgic longing. Undercurrents of fuzzy country, sophisticated chamber-pop, shoegaze and bedroom pop swirl together. On their latest offering, To Be A Cloud, album opener The Mist arrives like a bird on a flutter of flutes before a Bill Callahan-esque lyric unravels over pillow-soft percussion. And like Callahan (or David Berman, or a whole host of American songwriting greats), Saxophones singer Alexi Erenkov is aware of the subtle, bittersweet and long-lasting power of humour. Apparently, simple lines – ‘Portland’s the new LA/or is it the other way’ – bubble up from within a song’s superstructure and stay with you long after it has finished.
Erenkov’s partner in crime is his wife, percussionist Alison Alderdice, and To Be A Cloud is their third album together. Along with bassist Richard Laws (who also helps out on keys and synths), they reinvent the loungey, louche, west coast sound of the 70s, turning into something brighter and more inclusive without losing any of the strangeness or mystery. Lee Hazlewood is an obvious touchstone: these songs, like Hazlewood’s, often come caked in dust and bathed in light, but their lyrical concerns are deeper. Erenkov and Alderdice have recently become parents, and songs like Boy Crazy deal in a highly original way with the joys and trials of bringing up children.
In My Defense, with its sax and keys combo, begins like a stripped-back Steely Dan before loping into more organic, more sensitive territory. Speak For You, another song about parenthood, migrates from a musically minimal, Leonard Cohen-style intro into melancholy exotica. Conversation Soon gives a new slant to the ‘it’s not me, it’s you’ cliche. Erenkov’s lyrics often touch on the problematic nature of masculinity, and songs like Goddess In Repose display a self-deprecating openness and a willingness to accept change which is both refreshing and entertaining.
Margarita Mix creates a more ambiguous musical and lyrical landscape: the laid-back sonic palette conceals hints of darkness, and the song seems to teeter on the verge of a revelation. The album’s last two tracks provide some of its most melodic moments. The sweet, tuneful Hunter unfolds into a short but beautifully expressive sax solo, while Desert Flower is the band’s most Hazlewood-like moment, yet once again, the sax lifts it for a few seconds onto an altogether different level. This is mature and constantly surprising music that exists in its own sphere but nevertheless resonates profoundly with the outside world.
‘To Be A Cloud’ is out now – Bandcamp