Stephanies Id – Warm People CD Review
I suppose to some it’s a great revelation that Stephanies Id hails from Asheville North Carolina, as if music – like fifty years ago – was a strictly regional thing with an artist’s sound based strongly on their geographical circumstance. If you’re expecting banjos and fiddles and a country-fried sensibility you’re in for a big surprise (or a disappointment) here.
Stephaines Id is about as far away from that tired stereotype as one can be. If you were to pick them a hometown based solely on their sound you could easily say Oslo or New York City or Montreal. They eschew acoustic, opting instead for a collection of keyboards, bass rhythms and monochromatic drums. It’s not techno. It’s not rock. Call it pensive pop or brooding electro folk and, while it’s not entirely original, it’s not all too boringly familiar either.
They seem to have a thing for those instruments not easily associated with the musical zeitgeist (band member Krum plays the sleigh bells in case you were overly curious) and what makes this album so listenable is the mere fact that no two tracks seem to sound that similar. The mystery in determining Stephanies Id distinctive sound grows deeper and more inconclusive as you progress through the album.
The one constant would have to be lead singer Stephanie Morgan’s breathy, at times aching voice. She mutates from a quiet and breathy Kate Nash (minus the thick Brit accent) to a polite and audibly-discernible Bjork (minus the spontaneous impious shrieks). Ms. Morgan seems willingly buried within the songs, as if each is a specific tale and, in each, she takes on a specific, slightly-different role. You’re left with the overwhelming feeling she’s telling you stories as much as she’s singing you songs.
Any one of the first seven tracks from Warm People (their third full length album) could be considered exemplary of how good this band actually is although Mission from God, Hello From The South and The Weakling would be on the podium if I this were my Olympics and I was holding a collection of medals.
Sadly the CD drops off precipitously with the final three tracks on the album. You get the feeling they had rhythms and melodies they couldn’t fully cultivate before the CD was pressed. While it’s not nearly enough to wipe off that musical smile created with the first seven, you wonder if maybe this deserved to be shorter and, in turn, sonically sweeter.
Still, after all is sung and done, this is a very good record. It deserves to be heard by more people than are actually likely to hear it. Stephanies Id has staked their claim on the southeast and in Ashville and likely the greater North Carolina area. How far they will go seems solely dependent on how much people are willing to expand their own musical geography and aural horizons.
StephaniesId-The Weakling
StephaniesId-Hello From The South
StephaniesId-Mission From God
Tags: album
Interesting. I need to listen to it a few more times.
SoFreshLA.com