Let\u2019s begin with props where they are surely due: this album sounds like a rock album should. It has not been overproduced or overprogrammed. Every instrument\u2014guitar, bass, drums, organ\u2014sounds live, regardless of how or when it was recorded. And it\u2019s clear Autotune never touched the vocals, whose imperfections shine like diamonds, reminding you that this is real music made by real human beings. Listening to this album makes you feel like you\u2019re in the room with the band watching them perform, and every decision made by producer Hugh Christopher Brown and artist The Stephen Stanley Band enhances and enriches the vibe of the songs: raw, unpretentious, authentic. <\/p>\n
For this album, singer-songwriter-guitarist Stanley\u2014a founding member of Canadian legends The Lowest Of The Low\u2014assembled a crack band featuring Chris Bennett (guitars & vocals), Gregor Beresford (drums & vocals), and Chris Rellinger (bass), with producer Brown often featured on Hammond organ and piano. Like a number of very talented rock singer-songwriters before him, Stanley possesses a voice that\u2019s full of rough edges, but blows past its inherent limitations with passion; Stanley sings every word here like he means it and invests himself completely in these songs, and that makes all the difference. <\/p>\n
To some degree a concept album about the wearing of time on places and people in the town Stanley grew up in\u2014Toronto, Canada\u2014Jimmy And The Moon<\/i> opens with an anthem for our times. Over a firm, purposeful backbeat, \u201cTalkin\u2019 About It\u201d lays out a laundry list of nefarious behavior leading into the chorus \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about \/ I don\u2019t want to think about it now.\u201d (Stanley might be Canadian, but that sort of collective denial feels very American just now\u2026) \u201cThe truth has been hacked,\u201d he declares\u2014pretty heady stuff for a big-boned, thumping rock song.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Troubadour\u2019s Song\u201d\u2014a nostalgic remembrance of a bar in the old neighborhood\u2014asks \u201cWhen a moment passes, is it gone?\u201d over a steady-on beat, with 12-string acoustic, piano, accordion and flute lending an alt-country feel to this philosophical tune. Then the title track seems to offer an emphatic eulogy to the entire scene that\u2019s just been set; \u201cNothing happens here anyone would want to talk about \/ Tall tales, half-truths, and lies\u201d sings Stanley before noting that \u201cWe\u2019re gathered here today to say goodbye\u201d\u2014to youth, a scene, or a specific place and time, it isn\u2019t entirely clear, but the passing of a moment is felt with every note.<\/p>\n
The fairly cohesive first third of the album closes with \u201cUnder The Mynah Bird,\u201d whose heavy bottom end supports an appealing melody and a quirky lyric describing another old haunt and its denizens (who apparently once included Neil Young and Rick James). As Stanley riffs with both voice and guitar, describing every detail of a nighttime barroom ecosystem full of distinctive characters and critical turning points, it\u2019s hard not think of The Hold Steady. Unlike Craig Finn, Stanley actually sings his lyrics, but he brings a similar kind of intensity and literary-flair-with-noisy-bar-band-backing to his incisive lyrics, telling stories and talking about characters in a way that makes them feel like allegories and fables. <\/p>\n
The album takes a turn from there, expanding its subject matter while inviting in a series of guests who diversify its sonic palette. Fellow Brown producee David Corley sings the bridge of the cinematic, rather Springsteenesque \u201c40 Endings,\u201d while \u201cNext To Me\u201d showcases a memorable male-female conversation between Stanley and guest vocalist Hadley McCall Thackston, turning the tune into a sort of power-pop romantic devotional (\u201cI get through the day because of you\u201d being the basic message).<\/p>\n
Thackston returns, teamed now with Sarah McDermott, on the shambolic \u201cBirthday Clown,\u201d a thumping barroom singalong. By contrast, \u201cBy Her Side\u201d is airy, literate and evocative, little slide notes chiming like bells as Stanley wraps his voice\u2019s sandy edges around descriptions of \u201cthe haze of alcohol and misgivings\u201d and \u201cunfinished sentences and prevaricating eyes.\u201d (Shawn Mullins comes to mind here.) The album closes with \u201cCalifornia,\u201d a bigger and even airier number examining the geographic and emotional divide in a relationship, with guest Kate Fenner\u2019s soulful harmonies complementing Stanley\u2019s matter-of-fact lead vocal as a silvery guitar paints arcing, aching licks in the background.<\/p>\n
Jimmy And The Moon<\/i> is a showcase for Stephen Stanley\u2019s rough-edged yet high-browed roots-rock, a heady mixture of barroom philosophizing and gritty romanticism. Nostalgia has rarely sounded so important, or so real. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10139],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45246","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stephen-stanley-band","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45246","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45246"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45246"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}