Album Review: Twelve in the Bar – The Sights

The Sights celebrate their twelfth anniversary tonight at The Magic Stick with the release of Twelve in the Bar, a new LP of unreleased material dating from 1999-2010, twelve songs in total. (I’m sensing a theme here.)

While most bands at a similar stage in their careers would take the opportunity to rest on their narcissistic laurels and put out a Greatest Hits album, The Sights never have been boring or predictable. Twelve in the Bar is a collection of rarities: demos, studio outtakes, live recordings, and radio sessions. It features a well-balanced selection of material from all the various Sights “eras,” from Are You Green? to Most of What Follows is True.

Those who have never heard The Sights before need not be turned off by the collector’s appeal of the album. The songs are good enough to stand on their own, even without a longstanding affinity for the band. Opening the album is a gem of a tune, with all the bubbles and bite as a Jack & Coke. It’s sure to win over anyone with a respectable taste in music, and with a title like “I Wanna Fuck Your Sister,” what’s not to love? “How Does It Feel?,” an outtake from 1999, and “Sorry,” a live 2001 version of a song recorded on The Sight’s first record (and later revamped on their second), may come off rather inaccessible for new listeners, but the raw material is definitely there.

The real knockouts are the live acoustic takes; with minimal percussion in place of the usual rampant drumming found on The Sights’ studio albums, familiar Sights songs are transformed, full of space and soul. On “Jealous Night,” recorded live in 2005, the brooding restlessness of Eddie Baranek’s vocals perfectly interlocks with a darkly glowing piano accompaniment by Bobby Emmett. It’s enough blue-eyed soul to make Van Morrison green with envy. The 2002 live version of “Got What I Want,” a song originally recorded as a raucously cocky number for The Sights’ sophomore release, Got What We Want, has a similar effect. Stripped of percussion, and slowed to a mellow tempo, it’s striking and quite beautiful, once you get past the—ahem—“deeper” meaning of the lyrics.

It’s the longtime fans who will truly appreciate Twelve in the Bar, because while none of the tracks have been previously released, there’s a hazy sense of familiarity around them. Don’t look at the liner notes before listening to the album for the first time—it’s fun just to listen to them and to try to guess when they were recorded, with which lineup. Surprises abound, from repurposed lyrics to unsuspecting haphazard cover tunes.

If there’s one thing consistent about The Sights’ legacy, (because it isn’t their lineup) it’s frontman Eddie Baranek’s exquisite craft of songwriting. Though each of the band’s albums produced different drummers, bassists, and keyboard players accompanying Baranek, the ear-pleasing quality of the songs has never faltered. And while some former bandmates surely have held grudges in the past, it’s evident that the proverbial hatchet has been buried: members from every past incarnation of the Sights will reunite on stage tonight, playing songs that haven’t been performed live in years—and likely won’t ever be again.

So dig out your flared jeans, studded belt, disposable camera, and fake ID, because tonight’s show is sure to revive the wonder years of your concert-going youth. You may even be tempted to write about it in your LiveJournal.

The Sights’ record release is tonight at The Magic Stick w/ The Sin-Bads and The Wrong Numbers. Doors at 9:00.

Download a free track off Twelve in the Bar at thesights.bandcamp.com