Short Reviews [Sidewalk Society - 2024 - "An Introduction To"]

I note from going to the excellent FdeM website that this album is already sold out, so you need to hunt around if you want to get hold of a great album from Sidewalk Society which does exactly what it says on the cover. This psychedelic renaissance band has been providing covers of songs for the label since 2010, and this set brings together all of those numbers plus a selection of songs from non-FdeM releases plus the first appearance on CD of their remake of The Action's "Rolled Gold". The Action are often viewed as one of the most under-rated yet important British mod bands ever, with that set of recordings from 1968-69 only finally getting a release in 1995. The album commences with the first track they ever released with FdeM, The Bee Gees' "Red Chair, Fade Away". I must confess, as with most of the songs on this set, that this is not a number I know (the original album also featured "New York Mining Disaster 1941", surely one of their very finest recordings), so I can only gauge this on what I hear and as with the remakes of bands such as The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, David Bowie and others, they have managed to make it their own as all the songs sound and feel consistent, not that they were originally by different artists and recorded over a number of years. When it comes to their own material, they are less layered, more frenetic, which I am sure is down to wanting to reproduce the music in a live environment and while all three are singers, Dan West provides both keyboards and bass which is difficult to do in concert (unless you are Geddy Lee, obviously). There are songs from both their 2008 self-titled debut and 2012's "Venus, Saturn and the Crescent Moon", and they show a band confident in vocal harmonies, mixing psychedelia with a somewhat garage approach which is punchy and a lot of fun. It was a good idea to put these songs in the middle of the set, instead of keeping it fully chronological, as it means we get a musical sandwich which is very palatable indeed. Would The Action have become superstars if "Rolled Gold" had not been rejected by Parlophone? We will never know, but Sidewalk Society have been very brave indeed in completely re-recording an album which was not originally theirs, more than 50 years since the initial sessions, and again the result is nothing short of remarkable. One can only hope they gain more success than the band they idolise so much, as Sidewalk Society are currently on indefinite hiatus, but these guys live and breathe this genre of music and anyone who enjoys psychedelia certainly needs to find out more as this is a delight from beginning to end.