Every once in a while, I listen to a disc that is the equivalent
\nof Chinese food. I listen to it, and it’s very satisfying — but
\nwhen I sit down to write about it, I find myself needing to listen
\nto it again.<\/p>\n
That’s why I’ve been promising my friend at Capitol Records a
\nreview of
\nHoly Dogs<\/i>, the latest release from Stir, for the past three
\ndays, and am only getting to it now. The moment I sat down in front
\nof the keyboard, I felt like I had missed something with the disc,
\nand wanted to give it another spin. Good thing for everybody
\ninvolved that this was such a pleasant disc to listen to.<\/p>\n
What, you ask, is Stir like? Take the alternative leanings of a
\ngroup like Live, throw in the vocal harmonies of Yes and add a
\npinch of Dave Matthews Band. Okay, so now your mouth is watering,
\nright? The band — vocalist\/guitarist Andrew Schmidt,
\nbassist\/vocalist Kevin Gagnepain and drummer\/vocalist Brad Booker
\n— cook up just the right mixture of alternative groove and layered
\nsound to make you wonder if this really is a trio pulling such rich
\nmusical textures off.<\/p>\n
From the opening track “Superstation,” it’s almost impossible
\nnot to be hooked by these guys. There’s an underlying funk through
\nmost of the tunes on
\nHoly Dogs<\/i> that is strong enough to let you know that it’s
\nthere, but never becomes overpowering in the music. Stir seem to
\nknow not only how to create an appropriate mixture of musical
\ninfluences, but also how to keep it balanced for an entire
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
Don’t be surprised if you keep finding yourself going back to
\nsuch tracks as “New Beginning” (which better be topping alternative
\nrock stations’ lists of most popular tracks, if there’s any justice
\nin this world), “Spaceman,” “Help” or even the infectious “Velvet
\nElvis.” Be surprised if these tunes don’t get you tapping your foot
\nor humming their melodies after listening to them.<\/p>\n
Granted, the formula starts to wear a little thin near the end,
\nespecially on tracks like “Moon” and “Clear,” but the title track
\nthat closes the disc nicely wraps things up for Stir.<\/p>\n
The only real negative I’ve found with
\nHoly Dogs<\/i> is that it doesn’t seem to have the magnetic
\nstaying power that so many other bands who have reached some
\nmarginal success have with some of their songs. Yes, tracks like
\n“New Beginning” and “Superstation” stick with you — but all too
\noften, I found myself questioning how tracks like “Help” or
\n“Grounded” went, even if I had just finished listening to the album
\nfor a fourth time. Unfortunately, there really isn’t any magical
\ncure for this; only time and experience will benefit Stir in this
\nregard.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nHoly Dogs<\/i> is a disc that you can pop in and enjoy from start
\nto finish, without having any feelings of guilt afterwards. But if
\nyou find yourself having cravings like you want to listen to the
\ndisc again — that’s perfectly normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6331],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36623","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stir","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36623"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36623"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}