Album Reviews |

Kelley Stoltz



Circular Sounds 8 ( 2008 )
Everything Begins / Tintinnabulation / The Birmingham Eccentric / Gardenia / Mother Nature / To Speak To The Girl / Put My Troubles To Sleep / When You Forget / Your Reverie / I Nearly Lost My Mind / Something More / Reflecting / Morning Sun / You Alone

Evoking The Beach Boys, Elliot Smith and The Kinks - Kelley Stoltz has hit upon a winning sound, using his own 8 track recording equipment and reels of analogue tape. Fourteen relatively short songs fill just under fourty-five minutes, a nod to the past when albums were all constructed in a similar vein. Whilst Kelley Stoltz is definitely making various nods to the past, he's clearly not entirely wedded to the Sixties or Seventies. During several songs he does indeed take on a Ray Davies style yet songs as lovely as 'When You Forget' make these nods to the past entirely worthwhile. The closing 'You Alone' sounds like a lost psychedelic classic from 1967 - a notebook scrawl from Pink Floyds Syd Barrett. The opening 'Everything Begins' includes some worthy Brian Wilson styled backing vocals, 'Gardenia' if you close your eyes resembles a lost outtake from Wilson's 'Smile' album. A very simple short melodic phrase, easy lyrics and an almost apologetic vocal - everything combines to create a very natural, organic and warm sound.

Catchiness abounds! 'Your Reverie' sounds happy, summer of love-y and is a joy to listen to. 'Reflecting' is an instrumental track so very well composed. Kelley himself plays the majority of the instruments on the LP, yet something like 'Reflecting' sounds more like a band playing in the studio than the overdubbed efforts of a man in his bedroom. 'I Nearly Lost My Mind' is another track where the arrangement is just superb, all sorts of clever little things go on as Stoltz pens another winner that you think is some kind of nugget left off nuggets for reasons no one can quite comprehend. Storming stuff.

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