Tim Darcy - Saturday Night (2017) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Saturday night has long been pop music’s favorite part of the week a time for fighting, fevers, and over-excited group spelling bees. But if the cover of his first solo album is any indication, Tim Darcy likes to spend it alone with his plants. His Saturday Night isn’t about going out on the town, but retreating inside his mind, following his wandering thoughts wherever they lead, even if they take him to some dark places. As frontman for Montreal quartet Ought, Darcy has, over the course of two records, emerged as one of indie rock’s most wily and witty wordsmiths, channeling the daily absurdities and anxieties of modern urban life into twitchy post-punk screeds. By contrast, Saturday Night is more intimate in every way: in scale, in production, and most importantly, in its emotional vocabulary.

On the one hand, Saturday Night does exactly what you expect a solo record from a member of a raucous rock band to do: It’s more off the cuff and rougher around the edges, and showcases a more introspective side than the day job normally allows. On the other hand, it’s an assault on that very idea. Over its 11 songs (including one hidden one), Darcy slowly dismantles the confessional crooner archetype until he’s just messing around with the raw materials, transforming himself from singer-songwriter to sound sculptor. And it becomes increasingly clear that, for Darcy, Saturday Night isn’t just a reservoir for songs that don’t quite fit his main band’s m.o., but a portal to a world beyond rock’n’roll entirely.

From the outset, Saturday Night both plays to expectations and subverts them. Opening rave-up “Tall Glass of Water” begins on familiar fidgety footing though it’s a little more rickety than the typical Ought jam, the frenetic energy coursing through it makes the source easy enough to identify. But one minute in, Darcy brings the song’s smash ‘n’ grab momentum to a dead stop and reboots it as a cool mid-tempo strut as if he was playing Lou Reed’s Transformer at 45 rpm and suddenly flipped it to 33. “Well the questions are being asked,” he sings, “Is it fate or is it popsicle?” The meaning may not be clear, but the message is: we’re on his melted clock now, and things are about to get surreal.

Tracklist:

01. Tall Glass of Water
02. Joan, Pt. 1, 2
03. You Felt Comfort
04. Still Waking Up
05. First Final Days
06. Saturday Night
07. Found My Limit
08. Saint Germain
09. What'd You Release?
10. Beyond Me
11. Joan, Pt. 3 (Hidden Track)



All thanks go to the original releaser