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Album: Stackridge, A Victory for Common Sense (Helium)

(Rated 3/ 5 )

Reviewed by Andy Gill

Stackridge's brand of folk-prog-rock proved a little too parochial and well-mannered to follow in the footsteps of Jethro Tull and Yes back in the 1970s, though they can claim the distinction of being the very first band to play Glastonbury.

The reformed group's new album finds their strengths and weaknesses in full supply, notably their air of whimsical Englishness. Several tracks reflect a wistful sense of lost heritage comparable to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. In the jaunty "The Old Country", a retired expat couple, finding life Down Under less blissful than expected, hanker after a return to Blighty, while the poignant tone of the pastoral elegy "(Waiting for You and) England to Return" hardens into the darker, more militant mood of "Red Squirrel", with its refusal to "bow to the grey machine". Oddly, the album sounds more Eighties than Seventies, though opening proceedings with a version of "Boots and Shoes" by the band's Eighties offshoot, the Korgis, does set the tone accordingly. The album's later stages, however, mark the return of the kind of unfocused meanderings that rendered prog-rock old and in the way the first time round, most notably in the 11-minute "The Day the World Stopped Turning", an event surely deserving rather more drama than is involved here.

Download this: 'Red Squirrel', 'Boots and Shoes', 'The Old Country', 'Long Dark River'

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A Victory For Common Sense - Stackridge CD review.
[info]jeff_cooper wrote:
Friday, 10 July 2009 at 11:51 am (UTC)
Faint praise, but praise nonetheless! 11-minute meanderings and wistful English tunes are just one of the things that fans of this band will love.

However. Stackridge are a bit more 'rock' than pop/folk on this new album than they were in the 1970s and the Beatle-ish melodies and musical twists and turns have a lot more oomph than oompa for this re-incarnation of the band.

This is an album of absolute musical quality and heralds a new and far more focused era for Stackridge. A Victory For Common Sense deserves a wider hearing by fans of quality classic rock by young and old.

Snippets (and a track by track commentary by the band) plus 1 full track that couldn't be squeezed onto the CD can be heard at www.strackridge.net via the July edition of the 'Lummy Days' Podcast.

Check it out.

Jeff Cooper
Making Your Mind Up
[info]barbaraville wrote:
Friday, 10 July 2009 at 12:13 pm (UTC)
I'm off to see the launch of this album at The Bush Hall in London next Thursday (16th) and my first hearing of it as such was via the excellent podcast from Stackridge's Website (www.stackridge.net) which I would urge people to listen to before taking Andy Gill at complete face value on the "unfocused meanderings". The rework of Boots and Shoes is how it should have been in the first place. If anything my take on this album is that it is the band being the same band throughout the whole recording rather than flitting from genre to genre as they may have been guilty of previously. Fans of the band's earlier works should not be disappointed either especially as you get a chance to hear much more of Andy Davis' guitar work and some excellently placed bass from Crun Walters. Much credit is due to the production skills of Chris Hughes (remember him in the traps for Adam Ant?) And not a mention of Rhubarb :-)

John in Barbaraville
Album: Stackridge, A Victory for Common Sense - CD Review
[info]davidinstroud wrote:
Friday, 10 July 2009 at 06:32 pm (UTC)
Perhaps this is why Stackridge never had the commercial success they deserved - they don't fit a"formula". Dig a little deeper and you discover a diverse repertoire but with the spirit of "Stackridge" running through every track of every album, including "A Victory..." Go listen to their poppy hooks, their "darker moments" and delightful meanderings and see them do it live too with their best-ever eight piece band. Of all the reformed groups from the 70s / 80s, how many retain so many original members and could produce an album of this outstanding quality?
Stackridge, A Victory for Common Sense
[info]davidinstroud wrote:
Friday, 10 July 2009 at 06:36 pm (UTC)
Perhaps this is why Stackridge never had the commercial success they deserved - they don't fit a"formula". Dig a little deeper and you discover a diverse repertoire but with the spirit of "Stackridge" running through every track of every album, including "A Victory..." Go listen to their poppy hooks, their "darker moments" and delightful meanderings and see them do it live too with their best-ever eight piece band. Of all the reformed groups from the 70s / 80s, how many retain so many original members and could produce an album of this outstanding quality?
A Victory For Common Sense by Stackridge
[info]alsatian21 wrote:
Monday, 13 July 2009 at 11:23 am (UTC)
Good to see a review for the new Stackridge album, it really is a fine piece of work. I disagree with Andy Gill's comments about some tracks being 'unfocused' though, all the tracks sound disciplined and tight to my ears, Lost And Found and Long Dark River from the latter stages of the album especially so. If you haven't checked out this release, you really ought to, there can't be another group of musicians who have been around creating for forty years that sound as vital, fresh and inventive as Stackridge do. A Victory For Common Sense is a truly remarkable achievement and I for one can't wait to see the band perform it live at Bush Hall in London on Thursday 16th July.

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