Few bands could dream of scoring as many breaks as The Storys have. Formed in 2003, the band has already played to an audience of more than 70,000 near Buckingham Palace. In addition, the band will be supporting Elton John on tour dates this summer. Just as David Bowie has prided himself on being one of TV On The Radio\u2019s biggest cheerleaders, Elton John has raved publicly about the band\u2019s self-titled debut album. <\/p>\n
The debut album from the South Wales sextet is an extremely unified release, considering the band has four singer\/songwriters. Virtually all of the songs on The Storys<\/i> include a rousing, melodic chorus and harmonies that recall late \u201860s and early \u201870s laid-back California rock — with a liberal coat of studio gloss for good measure. <\/p>\n
The light-as-air vocals come courtesy of Steve Balsamo, Andy Collins and Dai Smith. The harmonies and pop-centered musicianship make The Storys sound like an \u201call bases covered\u201d album. You have a few uplifting rockers (\u201cI Believe In Love,\u201d \u201cBe By Your Side\u201d), a few heart-tugging ballads (\u201cYou\u2019re Not Around,\u201d \u201cCinnamon\u201d) and even a few genre shifts for good measure, such as \u201cYou\u2019re Taking My Heart Away,\u201d which has a Latin groove that\u2019s pure Santana down to the brief, fuzzy guitar solo just about a minute into the song. <\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a repeated thread, lyrically, it\u2019s vulnerability. In \u201cHigh Enough,\u201d Balsamo pleads \u201c\u201dDarling I need you \/ Weak as I am \/ I can\u2019t release you.\u201d \u201cBe By Your Side\u201d and \u201cSave Me\u201d are packed with quasi-religious imagery that could easily be played at a contemporary Christian church service, yet not preachy enough to repel secularists. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for an almost perfectly-constructed pop album, The Storys<\/i> is a safe bet. In fact, it\u2019s almost criminal that this album took a year to be released in the United States. <\/p>\n
The only problem is that The Storys<\/i> is almost too clean of a release. What\u2019s missing are those wonderful elements of \u201cmessing up\u201d that are included in some of The Storys\u2019 influences, namely Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. On paper, The Storys<\/em> is about as close to pop perfection as you can get. But as a full listen, it\u2019s that perfection that occasionally hurts the band. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping the band has the gumption to risk a few sloppy missteps on their second release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7941],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-40258","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-storys","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40258","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40258"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}