DALLAS GOOD & RICHARD REED PARRY - WERE THE WATCHTOWERS
When Dallas Good of the Sadies and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire connected in 2009 and began writing music together, neither party could have known at the time that they were beginning the process of writing Good's epitaph. What began as a slow exchange of musical ideas spread over years was greatly accelerated by the sudden passing of Good in early 2022. Parry had completed production on the Sadies Colder Streams album the year prior, and at that point was still and active member of Arcade Fire, who were in the process of getting ready to release their Nigel Godrich-produced album, WE. When Parry announced that he had an album's worth of material that he had recorded with Good that needed to be finished before it could be released, fans were optimistic but uncertain of when these recordings would see the light of day.
Flash-forward to 2026 and we finally have the finished product, the long-overdue Were the Watchtowers. A brief yet highly meaningful release spread across nine songs in thirty minutes, the songs that comprise Were the Watchtowers are largely folk music in the traditional sense, removed from either the alt-country of the Sadies or the indie-rock orchestrations of the Arcade Fire. The songs are truly timeless, and for the most part sound like they could have been derived from any point in the last hundred years of recorded music.
The album opens with the haunting "Alone Alone," which immediately establishes the musical dynamic between Good and Parry, whose respective low and high voices gel seamlessly to create angelic harmonies rarely heard in the modern age of auto-tune and AI-generated audio "perfection." By the time "Echo the Part" rolls around, hints of the the Sadies trademark country begin to creep into the songwriting, likewise recalling Good's lineage as the progeny of the long-running Canadian country outfit the Good Brothers, and later the Good Family band.
However, it isn't until the album's second half that the true collaborative nature of Were the Watchtowers is revealed. The Margaret Atwood-assisted "Are You Gone (When You're Gone)" concludes with a beautiful spoken-word passage narrated by Atwood herself, as she ruminates on all that is left behind when someone leaves the world. Likewise, the Neko Case-penned "The Hole in the Wall" recalls a simpler, more innocent time, when the Sadies were her backing band (her "Boyfriends" as it were), and they slept on whatever furniture they could find after shows, likening the situation to one that felines often find themselves in.
By the time album-closer "Not in This World" rolls along, Parry brings the collaborative nature of Were the Watchtowers full circle, as he literally crowd-sources the vocal harmonies that are used to drive home the song's refrain: "not in this world, not in this world." Parry reached out on social media to have fans submit their own recordings of the chorus, and these were subsequently mixed with recordings of Good's musical peers and family members to complete the song. The results are moving to say the least, and concludes the album on a note that feels both otherworldly and hauntingly beautiful.
The world is an infinitely smaller place with Dallas Good no longer in it, but Were the Watchtowers is a loving reminder of all that was amazing about the man. For someone who was born into a musical family and literally lived and breathed musicality effortlessly, it seems only too appropriate that his final gift to the world would arrive in the form of some of the most inspiring music of his career. Gone but not forgotten, rest easy Dallas.
-Leks Maltby