The Stands - 'All Years Leaving' (Echo)
3/5
By: Toby L
SPLUTTER. 'Scuse us as we clear the sap from our throats; sucking on twigs all afternoon under a setting sun and amidst an open field of corn in a rose-tinted summer from days gone by has its price.
And one of them is that now The Stands' record is with us, we've been provided the idyllic, obligatory farmyard companion; twelve breezy, organic tracks of harmonic, acoustic abandon, songs of love, life and - er - sappiness.
In a good way. For in their amalgam of Gram Parsons and every wistfully melodic and classic Liverpool band that's ever walked the earth, Howie Payne's restrained four-piece arsenal have never lost sight of sheer composition: i.e. the core-nutrients of what forms a song. None of that ill-focussed, new-wave hippie shite here, then; instead, time and time again, we've granted the sort of enriching, forgotten verse-bridge-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-solo/break-bridge-chorus structures that were last seen, say, ooh, 40 years ago.
Only it's been revived with the full, crisp live-sounding allure of modern times. So, yes, we've got a whole greedy myriad of instant gems - the sing-along grace of the band's debut-45 'When This River Rolls Over You'; La's-y thud of 'Here She Comes Again' (complete with a middle-eight vocal from Payne that may lead you to tears); the torch-waving majesty of 'Always Is The Same - Shine On'; and airy, heady melodious crawl of 'It's Only Everything'.
It's fair to say that it's all quite wet. This isn't a band that prides itself on gorilla-like belligerence, but when the hair is given a ritual shaking and the spliffs are swapped in favour of a bottle of bourbon, we get a loose jazz-like groover - and it's their piece de la resistance, and closing-track: 'The Way She Does', a hypnotic trance of solos, exhilarating drumming and vocal-chants that could very well leave one with messed kecks.
So as a collection, it's pretty faultless; too much to adore, too little to bore. Though hesitation may be aimed toward the innovation seldom hinted to throughout their debut, as the thrilling climax proves, The Stands are still seemingly far from unearthing their finest stomp. And when that arrives, simply prepare to be stupefied.
Artists in this article: The Stands
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