The Sad Riders came to life at a time when Favez frontman Chris Wicky ended up with a bunch of acoustic songs that didn’t exactly go with Favez’ rock tendencies. That’s why he released “Lay Your Head On The Soft Rock” seven years ago. It was a very mellow, warm affair that also gave him the opportunity to work with his brother Greg (Chewy, Pendleton).
Two years ago Favez released the album “Bigger Mountains, Higher Flags”, on which they already broadened their horizon considerably by incorporating piano and the likes. On “In The End We Always Win”, Wicky’s back with a new album under the Sad Riders moniker with a whole bunch of friends and a fresh batch of songsthat might lean closer to Favez’ doings than anyone would’ve thought beforehand. Some of the songs on here like “Travel Light” and “Professional Man” wouldn’t have looked out of place on the last Favez album while the most mellow songs on “Bigger Mountains, Higher Flags” could’ve just as well been mistaken for a Wicky solo song.
Whatever the case may be, “In The End We Always Win” is a highly enjoyable album with poppy songs like “Victoria” (a duet with Heidi Happy), very intimate cuts (opener “Evil”, “Come Out For More”) as well as a bunch of songs in which Wicky lets his love of country shine through (“Mr. Porter”, “You Can’t Go Wrong (When You Got A Song)”). Hell, with “Baby Dancing Over The Sun” he’s even written a track built around a ragtime piano. And I’ll be damned if I don’t like it as well.
Score: 8 out of 10
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