Some records take longer than others to make. While not in the Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy category (or budget), The Far West’s latest album Everything We Thought We Wanted took the long road to fruition. Delays were both planned and unplanned – COVID, for example, was an interruption that turned into an opportunity to take extra time with the recording process. Then the tapes were nearly lost in the Eaton Fire that devastated Los Angeles earlier this year. Fast forward, and the album is finally getting its release, a mere 11 years after its predecessor.
Album opener “See For Yourself,” which Twangville premieres today, sets the stage brilliantly. Singer-guitarist Lee Briante cites The Band as a touchstone (see below), and it’s a fitting one. The song crackles with the loose-limbed urgency of their 1972 live masterpiece Rock of Ages. Briante points to “Don’t Do It,” though I also hear the ragged spirit of “The Shape I’m In.”
Like the aforementioned, um, band, every instrument – guitars, rhythm section, piano, organ – sounds intricate and interesting on its own. Yet when they intertwine the song blooms, the whole rising far above the sum of its parts.
If the extedned process of creating the album taught them anything, it was the value of perseverance. That concept – wisdom hard-earned – comes to life in the lyrics of the song. “Now that you know, with all that knowledge where do you go,” sings Briante, “Now that you see all the light and the dark and the space in between.”
Band members Robert Black and Lee Briante both weighed in:
Black: “See For Yourself” is our first stab at a song that’s not really a sad song. A song about dropping everything, leaving it all behind and coming to Los Angeles to pursue different dreams. It’s still sad in a way but not nearly as sad as our other stuff.
Briante: This one started as a vamp for me , more of a groove-based foundation than my usual cowboy chords style. I guess we were thinking about The Band’s “Don’t Do It” when we worked it up. Robert’s bass line really took it to a new level with some explosive energy locking in with the drums and it all came together in the studio . Aaron really nailed this guitar solo. It fits so well, like the song itself, his solo is short but it travels a great distance, covers a lot of ground. The song is a high energy short little funky thing. Lyrically, it’s about being stubborn and needing to learn things the hard way on your own. The opening line is a near straight lift from Stax artist William Bell – “You Don’t Miss Your Water”. Many people have recorded that song. But hearing the Byrds version one day, it sent me off on this idea of self-imposed exile that might end up killing you. And having to find your own way, even if it means stepping in shit.
Twangville is honored to premiere “See For Yourself” from the forthcoming Everything We Thought We Wanted.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.