The myth of the supergroup is one of rock’s most enduring, which is surprising, since just about every celebrity conglomeration has proven to be something less than the sum of its parts.
The Unintended’s self-titled debut is different. While the participants have their pedigrees, they’re hardly household names. All four members of Toronto roots-rockers the Sadies have joined forces with Rick White (Eric’s Trip and Elevator) and Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo). Distinguished company, but as rock dream teams go, this is hardly Blind Faith.
The Sadies’ twisted take on trad-country, White’s claustrophobic rec-room prog and Keelor’s earnest alt-country are stirred into a bouillabaisse of spooky psychedelia that recalls the more languid interludes in the 13th Floor Elevators’ Easter Everywhere. Melodic, effects-laden guitar lines from Keelor, White, and brothers Dallas and Travis Good spiral around the locked-in rhythms of drummer Mike Belitsky and bassist Sean Dean. This kind of thing can get cluttered easily, but it’s to the Unintended’s credit that there’s a lightness and a propulsive undercurrent to the music that keeps things moving forward.
The album was recorded at Keelor’s rural Ontario farm in the dead of winter, and that icy, remote setting is appropriate for the resulting music, which draws lyrical inspiration from its own hermetic creation. “Oh why don’t you come in and playauntil everything all goes away,” they sing on “A Quiet Getaway”. On “The Truth”, they sing of “a small and smoky room so filled with doom and songs.”
The Unintended succeeds where other such efforts fail because the participants manage to draw something new and startling out of each other.
