Precious Moments
The Sadies are the Minutemen of insurgent country, at least to the extent that so many of their songs are about that long. Split roughly fifty-fifty between instrumentals and vocal tracks, the 20-song, Steve Albini-producedPrecious Momentsswings between a kind of solid (if predictable) surf-'n'-spaghetti-western twang--often reminiscent of Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet--and raging punk rock. Usually the instrumental moments here are what come nearest to precious, since the voice of frontman Dallas Good is about as rough as you'd expect from a band that doesn't sing but half the time. On the other hand, when this Toronto four-piece slows it down (on the drinking song "Wrap Around") or cuts loose completely (the searingly lo-fi "Barbarosa"), Good's unschooled squall makes perfect emotional sense.--David Cantwell