The Saps, C'mon Already – Start a Fire
by dave heaton
Chicago quartet The Saps play high-energy, super-catchy pop-rock that at first seems to adopt a smart-ass, self-mocking tone. The first song's first line is, "On the day that I was born / they dropped me on the floor / and you still got to work on time." That line's funny, but when he sings it a second time – after he's sung about a break-up – it sounds desperately sad, with a "why won't anyone listen to me?" undertone. The sadness in the Saps' jumpy pop isn't lying under the surface; it's right upfront. There may be fun, humor and brashness (of the sort that tempts listeners to use the word "punk," though they don't sound it) to everything they do – buoyed by loud guitars, harmony vocals and occasional rock n' roll screams – but they're just as strongly channeling confusion, frustration and heartbreak. By the fifth song, lead singer/guitarist/lyricist Dan Lastick has already sung about going to the hospital after having a heart attack, about his lack of self-worth and about talking to dead friends, and is now singing sensitively, "I nearly broke my spine last night."
But this isn't melodrama for its sake; they're tapping into pain and life's emotional crises in their own distinct way, as part of melody-oriented, smartly pulled-together songwriting. The album starts snappy and eventually slows into a tone more associated with introspection, but without losing any of the most charming elements: the edgy guitars, the singalong melodies, the expression of life's essential f'd-up nature which lingers throughout, summed up in "Making Connection"'s all-purpose line "it's sad but true / but it's what we do."
Copyright (c) 2007 erasing clouds |
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