The departure of keyboardist Adam MacDougall from the Chris Robinson Brotherhood several weeks prior to the release of the group’s newest album and supporting tour coincided with an adjacent announcement of cancelled dates and an uncertainty of the band’s future.  It was a gloomy series of revelations from a quintet that seemed on an upswing, playing consistently strong shows and issuing albums- live or studio- with regularity.  Servants of the Sun belies any of the gloom that may have been on their horizon, and MacDougall’s playing, specifically, is filled with optimism and energy.  If this is indeed the Brotherhood’s swan song, it’s a musically cheery one.

Buoyant and bright, MacDougall’s opening keyboard flourish is the first sound of the lead track, “Some Earthly Delights,” with singer-songwriter Robinson equally animated and present.  It’s roller-rink rock at its finest, evoking cut-off denim and beach-blonde perms as it unfurls.  A back-to-back pairing of summer shake, with guitarist Neal Casal showing off tasteful slide work, comes next with “Let it Fall” and “Rare Birds,” before what has become a favored live staple for the band- the bouncing and shifting “Venus in Chrome.”

The middle portion leans into the Brotherhood’s familiar cosmic California country rock stylings.  “Stars Fell on California” allows for a swirling mid-section amongst Robinson’s fraying lament, while Casal dovetails a beautifully paced solo into MacDougall’s complementing keys on the chugging lope of “Comin’ Round the Mountain.”  There are more hints of Bakersfield winking in “The Chauffer’s Daughter,” followed by the airy float of “Dice Game,” that stabilizes, then floats again, with a narrative that makes Los Angeles sound far more peaceful and inoculating as anything has in decades. 

A short sonic collage on “Madder Rose Interlude” slides into the album’s closer, fittingly, and in hindsight ironically, titled “A Smiling Epitaph” that weaves its foregoing remnants into a spellbinding ‘70s dreamland.  Maybe the Brotherhood will endure in some other form or fashion, but if not, this final cut is a perfect legacy.  The ‘70s dreamland of cosmic California country and Southern sway that belonged to these particular five now belongs to the annals and to a setting sun.