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| Track list: 1. Zorbing 2. I Saw You Blink 3. Fuel Up 4. The Coldharbour Road 5. Boats and Trains 6. We Are the Battery Human 7. Here Comes the Blackout...! 8. Watching Birds 9. On the Rocks 10. The End of the Movie 11. Long Distance Lullaby Running time: 43 minutes Released: 2010 |
A local band. Stornoway formed in Oxford. I remember there being a buzz about them at the time. I remember picking the album up on a punt a short while later. I remember not liking it much. How much of that is true and how much is dodgy recollection is now to be tested.
What I can say before it kicks off is that I really like the album title - it conjures up pictures of recovered flotsam, curiosities from another life. It would be a shame if that is the best thing about it. The first track - Zorbing, after the hobby with the giant hamster balls - starts very non-committally. It reminds me a lot of something else - I think it may be Standard Fare, even though their vocalist is female. It has generic indie-pop all over it; fun but not too fun, light but not too light, easy to listen to, hard to like in any active perception. This sense persists as we move forward... there is none of the instant charm of Allo Darlin' here, just some very repetitive bases and lazy head-nodding structures.
It really isn't that bad, but it isn't good either. The only thing standing out is the fact it does not stand out.
There is a slight change in tone for Fuel Up - more morose, less twee - but still equally uninteresting. It is notable that there is a distance in the recording; everything seems quite soft as if it were drifting across a field rather than being experienced up close. It is not just the volume, but there is a muffled edge to some of the sounds that increases that. I think this is deliberate, it would tie in with the choice of a faraway coastal town on a windswept coast as a band name. If so, then this is the second thing to like after the album title. The Coldharbour Road makes me think back to my university years in Bristol despite being a part of town I never spent any time in - it is the best song yet and a probable keeper but I am afraid that does not say much.
It really is the vocal that gives me the indie-pop vibe more than anything else. The composition infringes on that patch now and again but the cadence of the singing is the stamp of genre in a way that I cannot quite explain. The album does seem to be getting better though even if there is still that propensity for uninteresting repeated rhythms and hooks. I find it interesting that the first two tracks - which really were utterly bland - were the singles and that I am more engaged with the disc as we leave them behind. I say that, but I have just disengaged with a Mumford moment. Unfortunately I do have Mumford & Sons to come, but I cannot stand them (another buy based on popularity which is clearly a bad thing!) and there is something about the song that just started which brings them to mind and there is nothing positive about that. The timing fits for them to have been a significant influence too, so I hope it does not go beyond this one track.
I seem to be leaving flaky skin all over my keyboard. Ew. I have noticed that my skin and lips have really suffered this winter and I hope that they recover as warmth returns to the country. Warmth may just have flashed back in the music too - bit more of a driving pace, same distance on the recording... Watching Birds is a decent start and feels like it is building - if it can continue without falling back into the same hook that it started with it might be another keeper. Alas, it drops back into the same form which worked for about 30 seconds before it got dull. There is some interest over the top of it but it has lost the urgency that it started with and the way it is presented feels like something that has been cobbled together from random bits and bobs rather than crafted with any plan and cohesion. It is nice to be listening to a shorter work though - even if I am not entirely enjoying it.
Into the run in, and there is no energy in the playing. I am listening in procrastination; I should be sorting out car insurance, credit card bills and battening for some shelves but the cold windy day is not inspiring me. That and I woke up knackered which never sets the day off on a good foot. I think a bowl of soup and Game of Thrones (Tyrion's second trial by combat) are next up and maybe this afternoon I will be better placed for productivity. This post is good for a clear-out though - the retention rate is low. I do not know how much difference it will make to get rid of this stuff - for all the chaff that I am cutting my library will still be huge and I will still end up skipping stuff freely if I shuffle it all. I suspect after I am done I will have achieved very little but having this as an outlet is a positive in itself. I have been going 6 months already at a rate of slightly below 1 album/2 days and at that rate it could be a decade's endeavour. How much new material will I buy in that time frame to invalidate my clearout?! The pile of 2015 purchases is in front of me, and it amounts to approximately one a week. That is a lot of additions but I am just about listening faster than I am buying and to be fair I have just found a couple of really good artists that prompted specific action.
Meanwhile Stornoway are concluding their effort whilst I waffle on. The run in has been nondescript and unremarkable. Nice enough, not objectionable but not anything that I feel I need to listen to ever again either. I do not feel any loyalty to local bands really, certainly not enough to overcome indifference of output. The last tune has receded and my finger hovers over delete as I plunge 9 of the 11 tracks here into the Room 101 of my recycle bin.
What I can say before it kicks off is that I really like the album title - it conjures up pictures of recovered flotsam, curiosities from another life. It would be a shame if that is the best thing about it. The first track - Zorbing, after the hobby with the giant hamster balls - starts very non-committally. It reminds me a lot of something else - I think it may be Standard Fare, even though their vocalist is female. It has generic indie-pop all over it; fun but not too fun, light but not too light, easy to listen to, hard to like in any active perception. This sense persists as we move forward... there is none of the instant charm of Allo Darlin' here, just some very repetitive bases and lazy head-nodding structures.
It really isn't that bad, but it isn't good either. The only thing standing out is the fact it does not stand out.
There is a slight change in tone for Fuel Up - more morose, less twee - but still equally uninteresting. It is notable that there is a distance in the recording; everything seems quite soft as if it were drifting across a field rather than being experienced up close. It is not just the volume, but there is a muffled edge to some of the sounds that increases that. I think this is deliberate, it would tie in with the choice of a faraway coastal town on a windswept coast as a band name. If so, then this is the second thing to like after the album title. The Coldharbour Road makes me think back to my university years in Bristol despite being a part of town I never spent any time in - it is the best song yet and a probable keeper but I am afraid that does not say much.
It really is the vocal that gives me the indie-pop vibe more than anything else. The composition infringes on that patch now and again but the cadence of the singing is the stamp of genre in a way that I cannot quite explain. The album does seem to be getting better though even if there is still that propensity for uninteresting repeated rhythms and hooks. I find it interesting that the first two tracks - which really were utterly bland - were the singles and that I am more engaged with the disc as we leave them behind. I say that, but I have just disengaged with a Mumford moment. Unfortunately I do have Mumford & Sons to come, but I cannot stand them (another buy based on popularity which is clearly a bad thing!) and there is something about the song that just started which brings them to mind and there is nothing positive about that. The timing fits for them to have been a significant influence too, so I hope it does not go beyond this one track.
I seem to be leaving flaky skin all over my keyboard. Ew. I have noticed that my skin and lips have really suffered this winter and I hope that they recover as warmth returns to the country. Warmth may just have flashed back in the music too - bit more of a driving pace, same distance on the recording... Watching Birds is a decent start and feels like it is building - if it can continue without falling back into the same hook that it started with it might be another keeper. Alas, it drops back into the same form which worked for about 30 seconds before it got dull. There is some interest over the top of it but it has lost the urgency that it started with and the way it is presented feels like something that has been cobbled together from random bits and bobs rather than crafted with any plan and cohesion. It is nice to be listening to a shorter work though - even if I am not entirely enjoying it.
Into the run in, and there is no energy in the playing. I am listening in procrastination; I should be sorting out car insurance, credit card bills and battening for some shelves but the cold windy day is not inspiring me. That and I woke up knackered which never sets the day off on a good foot. I think a bowl of soup and Game of Thrones (Tyrion's second trial by combat) are next up and maybe this afternoon I will be better placed for productivity. This post is good for a clear-out though - the retention rate is low. I do not know how much difference it will make to get rid of this stuff - for all the chaff that I am cutting my library will still be huge and I will still end up skipping stuff freely if I shuffle it all. I suspect after I am done I will have achieved very little but having this as an outlet is a positive in itself. I have been going 6 months already at a rate of slightly below 1 album/2 days and at that rate it could be a decade's endeavour. How much new material will I buy in that time frame to invalidate my clearout?! The pile of 2015 purchases is in front of me, and it amounts to approximately one a week. That is a lot of additions but I am just about listening faster than I am buying and to be fair I have just found a couple of really good artists that prompted specific action.
Meanwhile Stornoway are concluding their effort whilst I waffle on. The run in has been nondescript and unremarkable. Nice enough, not objectionable but not anything that I feel I need to listen to ever again either. I do not feel any loyalty to local bands really, certainly not enough to overcome indifference of output. The last tune has receded and my finger hovers over delete as I plunge 9 of the 11 tracks here into the Room 101 of my recycle bin.
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