In an imperfect world, a group like Stroke 9 would be brushed
\noff as an alternative wanna-be. And being an imperfect person, I
\nalmost made that mistake with this group’s debut album
\nNasty Little Thoughts<\/i>. This review was supposed to run four
\ndays ago.<\/p>\n
But something intervened – namely, something about this album
\nthat nagged at me, and pulled me back in for another listen… and
\nthen another… and then another. Before I knew it, I was hooked –
\nand I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that this is how it all was
\nplanned all along.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist\/guitarist Luke Esterkyn, lead
\nguitarist\/vocalist John McDermott, bassist Greg Gueldner and
\ndrummer Eric Stock – reminds me a lot of groups like Third Eye
\nBlind, with the musical harmony and the alternative edge to the
\nmusic. There’s one major difference, though, between Stroke 9 and
\nThird Eye Blind: Stroke 9 is interesting.<\/p>\n
What intrigues me about Stroke 9 is how they’re able to
\ndance from tempo to tempo on songs like “Little Black Backpack,”
\nmaking it all sound so effortless. These shifts in style are what
\nnot only emphasize certain points in the song, but they also seal
\nthe deal for me.<\/p>\n
\nNasty Little Thoughts<\/i> succeeds by creating just the right
\nbalance of alternative and modern rock, resulting in a sound unique
\nto Stroke 9… yet familiar enough to hook you in for repeat
\nlistens. Songs like “Letters,” “Washin’ & Wonderin’,” “Make It
\nLast” and “Not Nothin'” all have that magical fishing line that
\nwill have you, before you’re even aware of it, listening to these
\ntracks repeatedly.<\/p>\n
That isn’t to say that everything on
\nNasty Little Thoughts<\/i> succeeds, but at least Stroke 9 goes
\ndown swinging on these few miscues. Tracks like “City Life,” “Are
\nYou In This?” and “Angels” just don’t succeed on the same levels as
\nthe excellent tracks, but you can hear that the band was at least
\ntrying on these numbers.<\/p>\n
Two questions still remain in my mind. First, are people going
\nto be willing to give an album like
\nNasty Little Thoughts<\/i> more than one listen in order to truly
\nappreciate what this band has to offer? Second, will they be able
\nto pick Stroke 9 out of an already crowded field on the airwaves?
\nSomehow, I keep coming back to the same answer to both questions –
\n“yes”.<\/p>\n
\nNasty Little Thoughts<\/i> is not an album that you’ll warm up to
\ninstantly, but if you have nearly the same reaction I did, you’ll
\nwonder why you keep getting drawn back to this disc. Before you
\nknow it, you’ll discover that Stroke 9 is one of the best new bands
\non the block today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7600],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39434","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stroke-9","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39434","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=39434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39434"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39434"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}