Saga
Symmetry

I clearly remember when in 2017 Saga announced the end of their forty-year career with a social video message. The announced tour was supposed to be a farewell tour, but when you have a passion in your blood, sometimes it's hard to stop, so much so that they returned to tour in 2019 and early 2020... only to even announce they were working on a new album.

It's a pity that it's not exactly a new album. "Symmetry" is a selection of the band's tracks reimagined in an acoustic version. Typically, I'm not a big fan of this type of production; I consider it basically wasted time that could have been spent composing an album of new material. However, that doesn't mean they can't capture my interest, especially if it's one of the bands I absolutely love the most.

Here, Saga did a truly great job. Making an album of acoustic reinterpretations is not easy, at least not if you don't want it to be mundane and predictable. One could just take the original chords and play them with an acoustic guitar, but that would be far too obvious—a level akin to a beach singer in front of a bonfire, something anyone with basic skills could do. However, Saga are excellent musicians, often underrated, and they don't settle for a simple acoustic set. The chosen tracks are reworked to make the most of their potential; you can sense in the grooves their desire to turn the songs inside out and provide them with an entirely new identity. The dedication in understanding how to restructure the tracks, how to transform this passage or that solo, which instrument to play it with, and in what key the track could be best redesigned is fully perceived. The result is that the album ends up seeming as credible as an album of new material; it sounds more like a new album than a reworked one, having its own life, enough to even help us forget the regret for an album of new material that never happened.

What makes the album rich and varied is the good variety of acoustic instruments used. Saga knew that just acoustic guitars and piano alone would be predictable, so they've freely utilized violin, cello, mandolin, banjo, accordion, and clarinet (already played by the keyboardist Jim Gilmour on some past occasions). The result is something that quite closely resembles folk. It's not obvious; acoustic doesn't necessarily mean folk (at least according to my judgment). Many times, I've heard material defined as folk just because it's heavily acoustic. Personally, I connect the word folk to something very popular, rural, grounded, and old-fashioned, something that might indeed make me think of a farmer in a plaid shirt, a costume party, a banquet, or an old lady knitting on a wooden chair in front of a farmhouse. For instance, I don't consider Kings of Convenience to be folk, whereas I have no doubt that Jethro Tull from the '70s are. Here, Saga give most compositions a distinctly folk touch, reminiscent of a folk dance or banquet. And it's all quite unusual; they had accustomed us to a highly technological, sci-fi, futuristic sound, rich with powerful and visionary keyboards, and now we find them in this unusual rural and ancient version, from one extreme to the other. It's no coincidence that even the cover depicts an ancient dusty library instead of space metropolises and the manga-like fantasy creatures of some past designs.

Kudos also to the choice of tracks to be reprised. The risk of falling into the greatest hits trap is always high when doing things like this; already, live performances are mistakenly seen by a myriad of bands as live greatest hits for the public. How many times have we complained about repetitive setlists, the habit of always playing the same hits? Saga also has its core of unmissable tracks, but for this acoustic album, they haven't relied on the usual classics. The only one is "Wind Him Up"; otherwise, we don't find "Humble Stance," "You're Not Alone," "Don't Be Late," "Careful Where You Step," "On The Loose," "The Flyer," "Scratching the Surface." Rightfully so, tracks for an acoustic album should be chosen based on the potential rendering they might have.

Admittedly, the slower tracks don't emerge particularly revolutionized; they already had a delicate mood at the time, which gets at most heightened. "Images" appears only slightly less futuristic, "No Regrets" is rediscovered only a bit more Hackett-like, while "Say Goodbye to Hollywood," originally dull in an equally dull album, emerges reinvigorated. Not particularly altered either is "Always There," even if that banjo seems spot on.

The best result is achieved with the more lively tracks, those harder to redesign. "Wind Him Up" and "Tired World" almost touch on flamenco, and "The Pitchman" is the most successful and complex reinterpretation, where revisiting every single weave was most challenging. The result is astonishing. The perfect transformation, however, is in the triptych of "Time to Go," "The Perfectionist," and "We Hope You're Feeling Better," tracks whose rhythm lends itself well to a folk transposition. Saga realize this and transform them into something reminiscent of a folk dance. There's another medley as well, formed by tracks from the album "Trust," consisting of "Footsteps in the Hall," "On the Other Side," and "You Were Right," with chorus swaps occurring. There are also three unreleased tracks, which, however, are interludes that don't add much.

In conclusion, I would have clearly preferred an album of new material, but it's already a miracle to have a new release from Saga after their announced farewell. And then, this album acts more or less like a new release. It seems to have a life of its own and leaves some room open for a possible ongoing pursuit for this historic yet unjustly under-praised band.