The Sails – ‘Brighter Futures’ (2021)
Michael Gagliano has turned his admiration for a certain Liverpool band into an impressively rewarding career.
Not only has the singer, songwriter and multi-diversified instrumentalist held the role of John Lennon in the ‘Let It Be’ musical – staged at the Theater Royal in Nottingham, England – but he creates his own excellent Beatlesque endeavors under the name the Sails.
Recorded in London during the virus crisis lockdown, ‘Brighter Futures’ serves as the sixth studio album by the Sails, and is firmly fastened with the type of adventurous angles, memorable melodies and deft execution we have come to depend on from Michael.
Psychedelic sensibilities materialize on tracks such as the dreamy keyboard-oriented ‘Fireworks’, the static spaciness of ‘The Pushaways’ and ‘Happy Go Lucky’, which jumps back and forth between charming whimsy and hazy distortion. Then there’s ‘The Shakes’ that is lit by a swinging groove before taking a detour into a buzzing hive of wiggy guitar motions.
A touch of boogie and swagger seed the uniformly catchy ‘Super-High Powered Lovin” and the ravishing swirl of ‘Halfway Broken’ is a tearjerking sentiment addressing isolation. Placed to a handclapping rhythm, a harmonious nip and a seizing hook, ‘Crying Out Loud’ moves in as yet another instantly gratifying cut on the album.
Along with nods to ‘Revolver’, various moods of ‘The White Album’ and John Lennon’s solo work, ‘Brighter Futures’ also finds the Sails embracing bits and pieces of Badfinger and Jeff Lynne. But due to Michael’s inspired arrangements and vital wordsmith skills, uniqueness can’t be denied. Here’s an album that ticks all the boxes when it comes to quality psychedelic pop rock.
Beverly Paterson
The Sails – ‘Brighter Futures’ (Kool Kat Musik 2021)
