The Stills – Without Feathers
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MyVillage
The Stills – Without Feathers
Release date: Out now
Format: Album
Genre: Indie-pop
Our Rating: 3/5
Happy times are back again- swoon those lighters and do the languid sways as The Stills will have you grinning cheek to cheek. The opening track, ‘In the Beginning’ sets the tone - think a kingsize burger for the ravenous, and The Stills are that musical putty filling in those missing crevices and emptied stomachs.
Priya, MyVillage
Press release
‘Mountain’is a summer anthem, and ‘It Takes Time’ slips back well with a swig of beer. Now that’s what I call an album donning the ultimate combo – drinking and feasting…
From Montreal via New York, and three years after the release of their much-praised debut, THE STILLS return with a brand new album, on a brand new label.
Drummer Dave Hamelin (who wrote most of the debut album, as well as Without Feathers) steps up to the mike to share co-frontman duties with vocalist/guitarist Tim Fletcher. Bassist Oliver Corbeil remains, touring keyboardist Liam O’Neil takes a permanent place, with newcomer Julian Blais picking up drumming duties.
With the line-up change, ‘Without Feathers’ was bound to mark a sonic development, and the new album definitely offers a sunnier outlook to the cutting post-punk sentiment of their debut, with their stark tales of love and loss replaced with a glorious smorgasbord of big, organic rock numbers and even (whisper it), alt-country. Lyrically they remain as spiky as ever. Still musing on strained or failed relationships, both in life and with the band, the lyrics often belie the upbeat sound – on ‘Oh Shoplifter’ handclaps and foot stomps accompany words of real betrayal, ‘Destroyer’ a rock anthem with a full horn section to the words ‘I hate you and your blood’. Recorded in their home town, Montreal, in Canada, the band roped in various fellow Canadians for contributions on the album, including Metric’s Emily Haines, Sam Roberts and various members of Broken Social Scene.
With their last UK tour a co-headline with The Shins, The Stills continue to prove popular road-buddies with the Kings Of Leon who they toured with this April.
‘Without Feathers’ sees the band join a brand new record label, and become label mates with fellow Canadians Martha Wainwright and Metric on Drowned In Sound Recordings.
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