There are moments when Stephen Stanley sounds like a pop music maker. The more mainstream parts of his latest album, trustfall, show someone who knows how to woo the tasteful and discerning end of the commercial pop world. But, he is smarter than that, not for him just more of the same, and it is the filters he runs his pop creativity through, generic demarcations that he hops, sounds and styles that he mixes and matches together that make the album a much more interesting prospect.
So while you have songs such as “i still have you,” anthemic, stadium ready pop of the highest order at one end of the spectrum, there are others, “not by sight,” for example, which push these pop moves into full-blown rock territory—not just rock but employing squalling shoegaze storms and ushering in raw post-rock walls of sound.
And there is even room for “signs,” a brooding and balladic, dark and delicious, cello-soaked, darkwave meets pop (yes, I never thought I’d write a sentence like that either, but you give it a spin and you’ll see what I mean) slice of seduction.
You should buy this album, not just because Stephen needs to save up to buy some upper case letters for his song titles, but because on trustfall we find him doing something interesting, different, alternative, yet accessible.
Fancy that!
