On leadoff track “Under the Pressure,” however, John Natchez’s baritone saxophone harmonizes brilliantly with the song’s array of synthesizers by the eight-minute anthem’s midway point, more prominently layering on a tastefully used instrument that, prior to this moment, The War on Drugs had underutilized. The band’s 2014 album Lost in the Dream finally made good on that suggestion, if somewhat sparingly-on tracks like barn-burning standout “An Ocean Between the Waves” David Fishkin’s saxophone blends in with the shoegazey textures that Adam Granduciel so meticulously layers together. Given that the heartland rock of Bruce Springsteen runs through The War on Drugs’ veins, it’s a wonder that they haven’t doubled down on Clarence Clemons-style saxophone more often in their catalog. The harmonized blasts of sax give a brighter, beefier backing to Clark’s dreamily upbeat standout, a sort of grounded counterpoint to her intoxicatingly intricate pop songwriting. On her 2014 self-titled album, however, she enlisted legendary saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney, a longtime collaborator of Tom Waits, to provide a woodwind section on her technology-skeptical second single. On earlier albums like 2009’s Actor, those saxophones (played by Hideaki Aomori) took on a distorted, amorphous sound, mimicking the strangely alien effect of her own guitar, which only occasionally sounded like a guitar as we know it.
Content Nausea by Parquet CourtsĪnnie Clark deserves some credit for standardizing use of saxophone in art rock in the 21st century. It’s used sparingly and tastefully, but when the saxophone finally shows up on standout “Pretty Machines,” it’s an earned climax to a tuneful showcase of everything the band does best. On 2014’s Content Nausea (as Parkay Quarts), they made an exception, inviting Jef Brown to touch up their scrappy Fall-like jangle with some soulful horn arrangements. Parquet Courts have the kind of sound that lends itself well to a bright and punchy addition of post-punk saxophone, they just choose not to most of the time. The trumpet makes the song seem stately, but the saxophone-performed by Joseph Shabason-makes it feel like an act of indulgence. The title track, in particular, radiates luxury, be it in the backing vocals, the pristine guitar tone or the horns that rise up between Bejar’s voices. The recording sessions for 2011’s Kaputt are now the stuff of legend, Bejar reportedly recording his vocals while reclining on a couch. It’s harder than it looks to make smooth sound cool, though if anyone is able to pull it off, it’s Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, the closest thing that popular music has to a method actor. But what made that record one of their most interesting was its embrace of classic pop, like on “Coronado,” a four-chord jangle-pop tune defined by Bill Oglesby’s saxophone solo, which is one part old-school ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and one part squealing freakout.
Instead you’ll find a cross section of high-profile indie, experimental outfits, metal weirdos, post-punk groups and more, all of which have found unique ways to bring the sax back.īy the time Deerhunter released 2010’s Halcyon Digest, they had begun to shift away from the more explicit shoegaze and noise rock textures of their first couple of records, instead favoring a more eclectic approach (save for transcendent moments like guitarist Lockett Pundt’s “Desire Lines,” which took the influence of Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation to hazy new heights). I don’t necessarily need to remind anyone of that fact. (I do!)įor the purposes of this exercise, metal is included in the definition “rock.” I also did not include “Midnight City”-everybody already knows and loves “Midnight City.” It was one of our favorite songs of the past decade. But starting with 25 is still a lot of sax-I certainly hope you see that as a good thing. It’s not an exhaustive list there are no doubt lots of great saxophone moments in rock music that aren’t mentioned here but deserve to be. As an appendix to our recent feature on the complicated history of the saxophone in rock music, I’ve decided to go ahead and compile 25 examples of the best rock songs with saxophone from the past decade.