Hello and welcome back! I’ve been getting home so late from work this week it has been hard to squeeze in a review, but today I was determined. Not to get home on time, though. That did not happen. But I will write a review anyway.
Disc 1549 is…. Let it Pass
Artist: Stray Birds
Year of Release: 2018
What’s up with the Cover? Our three band members look out at us. Behind them the wall is that shade of grey acceptable only for photography studios or when you are about to list the house for sale.
How I Came To Know It: I am an avowed Stray Birds fan, so this was just me buying their latest album when it came out. As it happens, this is also their last album, as they announced their breakup shortly before it came out.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Stray Birds albums and they are all good. This one is also amazing, but the competition is tough, and it lands fourth.
Ratings: 4 stars
Hearing “Let it Pass” always makes me feel a little sad, knowing that this is the band’s last record. They clearly had a lot of good music still in them, but as Kenny Rogers once sang, “you gotta know when to fold ‘em” and fold ‘em they did. As last hands go, this one was still a winner.
If you don’t know the Stray Birds, they are a folk trio of Maya De Vitry, Oliver Craven and Charles Muench. Charles plays bass and Maya and Oliver play everything else. More importantly they play whatever they are playing brilliantly. Rarely will you hear musicians landing everything in such perfect time; never rushed, never lagging, always just right. For a band that was in the throes of breaking up, you sure wouldn’t know it from their musicianship.
This record is a little more contemporary than previous offerings, but still very much folk music. There are hints of bluesy piano throughout as well as songs that are straight up country. I am used to the Stray Birds in a rawer folk state, and I admit when I first heard this record, I didn’t love it. I listened a couple of times and put it on the shelf for a while. This was a mistake. It is a bit different than previous offerings, but just as excellent.
The album begins with a classic Maya de Vitry vocal performance. De Vitry is a national treasure, with a rich and throaty tone to her voice that is inimitable. I tried to sing along to this song on the way home, but quickly realized that low verse and high chorus requires the kind of range I can only dream about. De Vitry not only hits all those notes, she hits them with the kind of power that can blow doors down.
The song’s chorus has a lovely image of reconciliation:
“Meet me on the bridge
We can watch the water
Meet me on the bridge
Water running under.”
Simple, but in de Vitry’s hands, powerfully so. As much as I love the song, there are some metaphors that had me scratching my head, among them, “We blew up so many times/We might as well be a science” and “I built so many walls/I might as well be an army.” Um…does science blow up and do armies build walls? I guess the answer to both is…sometimes? I mean chemistry sometimes has explosions and armies sometimes sit behind fortifications, but it isn’t what you think is going to happen in volume. But I digress…
De Vitry is also exceptional on the slower and more understated tunes, including “Nothing to Say About It Now” where she showcases a sweet and innocent head voice that will make you feel like lying in a field of daisies and staring at blue sky and clouds.
As a fan, I there can never be enough De Vitry on lead vocals, but this record also has a lot of Oliver Craven. Fortunately, he also sounds great, with a pure tone and a nice country/folk crossover sound. Songs like “Quicksilver Highway” and “Truth in the Night” both would be country radio hits if country radio knew what it was doing. “Truth in the Night” also has some fine harmonies, as the Stray Birds show they’re not just synched up on their instruments, but in their vocals as well.
I was going to give this album three stars, but I realized that the only thing wrong with it was I liked the other three records in my collection more. In the end, that wasn’t enough to hold it down. This is a solid record that most bands would be lucky to have as their best. If the Stray Birds aren’t going to make any more music, then they’ve left fans with one hell of a parting gift.
Best tracks: The Bridge, In My Time, Quicksilver Highway, Miles and Miles, Nothing to Say About It Now, Truth in the Night
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