The Stills - 'Changes Are No Good' (679)
3/5
By: Kevin Molloy
There's a minimalism to this song that belies its subtleties. The simple and repetitively strummed and picked six-strings form the foreground to an ambling bass-line and the soft synths that have earned The Stills their helpless 80s moniker. Tim Fletcher's vocals are similarly warm, and the chorus-line's hook is so laid-back it barely catches you. But catch you it does, for, as The Stills well know, melody is the one of the last sure-fire ways to catch a fish.
It is in the lyrics also that the beauty of The Stills surfaces. Fletcher compares his life to the moment that 'a Walkman falls to pieces; all parts, no heart'. The poetry is both understated and explicit ('I hate my best friends'), and invokes a surprisingly strong yearning for a childlike yesteryear, a time before having to 'try to act adult'.
There's much that could be said to be typical in this record, but it's arguable that 'if it ain't broke...' Or, as The Stills would have it... changing isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Artists in this article: The Stills
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