Video Premiere: Sam Roberts Band “Cascades”

Here’s some really compelling music from Sam Roberts Band.  The Juno Award-winning Canadian singer delivers a smoothly melodic vocal that flows like a stream of consciousness.  Gorgeously-produced, ‘Cascades’ is a fluid song full of lush instrumentation, tumbling piano over warm bass, the perfect vehicle for Robert’s voice.  Roberts describes the song as, “A call…like a bird to a longed-for, elusive mate….awaiting a response. Every melody I tried to set against the piano part seemed to want to start on a high note and fall… cascade downwards… it’s helpful when the music itself provides the metaphor.”

The video, directed by Kevin Drew, was put together during some late-night downtime while shooting the visual for another song, ‘Projection’.  Roberts’ lonesome walk down a dark, empty highway reinforces the song’s theme of desire and his emotive, heartfelt words.

The song is taken from the band’s 2023 album ‘The Adventures of Ben Blank’, which is, for the most part, a twanging country-rock concept record, in which Roberts embodies the main character, whose tough exterior fractures as the album progresses.  ‘Cascades’, however, really stands out, offering a different sound.  It’s Sam Roberts’ eighth album, and the fifth under the Sam Roberts Band moniker.  Back in 2002, Sam Roberts’ debut, ‘The Inhuman Condition’, became the bestselling independent EP release in Canadian music history.  Then, his next release, ‘We Were Born in a Flame’, became a huge, awarding-winning hit in Canada.  Over the years, Roberts and his band have continued to blend genres, crafting engaging, melodic songs.  Enjoy.