Circles Around the Sun's seven-cut, self-titled album was tracked at recording engineer Jim Scott's Southern California studio only a week before bandleader and guitarist Neal Casal took his own life. In a note he left behind, Casal requested this album be completed and for the band to continue. Circles Around the Sun (CATS) honored those wishes. For the foreseeable future, keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne, and drummer Mark Levy will move forward without a permanent guitarist and will instead rotate different ones. Guitarists Eric Krasno, Jared Mattson, and Scott Metzger have all made tour appearances.
Musically, these tracks walk the line between the free, unfettered improvisational jams found on 2018's Let It Wander and the more fusion-centric Meets Joe Russo EP from 2019. Things kick off to a righteous start with "Baby Man" as ringing guitar and keyboards slide into a cut-time shuffle where Horne's bass walks the line between jazz-funk and Krautrock. It evolves quickly with a vamp reminiscent of Television's "Marquee Moon" grafted on, and a loose, lovely collision of styles and rhythms assert themselves in interlocking grooves. "You Got to Start Somewhere" bridges prog rock, sound library music, and instrumental disco with funky, pitch-bent clavinet, a labyrinthian guitar journey, and a popping bassline as Levy keeps time with gentle breaks and fills. It's structured like a song with a gorgeous bridge and interlude for Casal to solo. "Leaving (Rogue Lemon)" is spacy jazz-rock fusion with a moody organ line reminiscent of Alan Parsons' "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You," before finding and opening the door to the spiraling unknown with warmth and verve. "Detroit Dos" at once bows to late-period Motown Funk Brothers and late-'70s P-Funk in a dancefloor stepper that fully indulges disco, surf, and prog to boot! "Land Line Memories" is a cosmic club-floor funk jam with a burning solo by Casal, a disco-fied chorus and bridge, and late-'80s Zappa tropes. The rambling keyboards on "Peter Jive" embrace everything from post-bop jazz, George Duke-esque Bahia fusion, and dubbed-out rock as the band fills the backdrop with soulful playing and meaty vamps. The set closes with "Money Is No Option," with its blissed-out drifting foreshadowing a soul-disco fusion akin to Herbie Hancock's ever-hooky experiments on Feets Don't Fail Me Now, and Lonnie Liston Smith's club-centric Exotic Mysteries with Casal adding rootsy rock and blues licks inside the groove. While CATS was an idea assembled by Casal, they quickly became a band. This final outing with him is every bit as amicable, innovative, and free as the band's previous releases. Circles Around the Sun is a truly fine sendoff; it stands head and shoulders above instrumental recordings from most rock musicians. The joy shared among these four musicians was abundant in everything they recorded, which is why this is a most beautiful and enjoyable album; it's also a bittersweet one.