Album Review: The Jayhawks - ‘Sanctuary Park’

The Jayhawks are back with their latest Sanctuary Park this week. The band are veterans of the industry for over four decades and their status as leaders in the industry remains firmly intact. Sanctuary Park continues the band’s tradition of writing bright melodies, full vocal harmonies, and complex storytelling in the tradition of the Americana genre that the band remains at the forefront of. The Jayhawks lead with the single on Sanctuary Park when they open with “Keeping Our Heads Above Water”, a bright poppy feeling rock tune.

The band sought out to play to their strengths on Sanctuary Park, so they focuses on harmonization and rich collaborative melodies incorporating guitar, keys, and percussion seemlessly. Thematically, The Jayhawks are focused on relationships and the passage of time on Sanctuary Park. We absolutely loved “Mr. Lincoln” which in both the melodies and harmonies had us feeling a Grateful Dead sensibility. The solo is also so full and rich, that we cannot leave it out of this review.

We also have to mention “Leap of Faith” a rich acoustic number featuring a great intro on harmonica and the signature Jayhawks harmonies. “American Midnight” is not only a cool song title, but it’s also a great tune that has quite a bit of giddy up to it, it’s just begging for you to dance. The title track comes in near the end of the record and the band takes some musical risks, which results in a bluesy sounding tune (particularly on the guitars) that features great harmonies (sensing a theme here?).

Overall, Sanctuary Park is a winner plain and simple. The Jayhawks once again show why they are one of the most important bands in the Americana landscape today. The Minnesota natives continue to deliver music at a high output both creatively and aesthetically. That is, the band achieves complex storytelling, while simultaneously making a record that is just downright “pretty” in every way sonically, particularly through its use of harmony and slick guitar work.

Rating - 8.5/10