(2014) Angus & Julia Stone - Angus & Julia Stone [Deluxe Version]
Wikipedia:
Angus & Julia Stone are an Australian brother-sister folk-blues group that formed in 2006. Their parents played as a folk duo before Julia and Angus were born. Angus & Julia Stone have released two studio albums, A Book Like This (8 September 2007), which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart; and Down the Way (12 March 2010), reached No. 1. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 they won five awards from nine nominations: winning 'Album of the Year', 'Best Adult Alternative Album', 'Best Cover Art' and 'Producer of the Year' for Down the Way and 'Single of the Year' for "Big Jet Plane". The siblings have each issued two solo albums with Angus releasing Smoking Gun (under the pseudonym Lady of the Sunshine) in April 2009 and Broken Brights in July 2012; Julia's albums are The Memory Machine (October 2010) and By the Horns (May 2012).
Review:
Angus & Julia Stone slipped quietly off the radar following the huge success of 2010’s album Down the Way and in particular the irresistible single from it, Big Jet Plane. Indeed the Sydney siblings seemed more intent on pursuing solo careers than reconvening for a third collaboration.
What changed their minds, chiefly, was the intervention of American producer Rick Rubin, who after much negotiation convinced the duo to record this new self-titled collection at his Shangri-la Studio in California.
On the plus side the 15 songs here, the first on which the pair have worked together extensively to create, benefit from Rubin’s experience and deft studio touches. He brings a pop dynamic and sheen to tracks such as the opening...
320 kbps | 168 MB | UL | MC ** FLAC
…A Heartbreak, which demonstrates from the off Angus and Julia’s easy harmonic chemistry and their ability to marry a plaintive lyric to a memorable hook. That song is also indicative of much of the album’s lyrical thrust, which is of love lost and found, imagined, pondered and cherished. There’s a seductive strident soul strain to Grizzly Bear, with Angus pushing the aching vocal to the limit.
On the down side there’s not a lot of lyrical invention going on here. Early single Heart Beats Slow, for example, bristles with the Stones’ warm harmonies on a tale of spurned love, but the words only scratch the surface of the sentiment with lines such as “I’m gonna miss you and all of the things we should have done.” Often the perfunctory lyrics are saved by the emotion in Julia’s or Angus’s voice.
The former is at her emotional best on the more angular, trippy Death Defying Acts, pouring out lines such as “I will perform a death-defying miracle / for someone with the chemicals to believe” with great conviction and heart. So too she soars on the vaguely Fleetwood Mac-sounding From the Stalls, a pop song writ large that one feels Rubin had a significant hand in crafting. Indeed he does a fine job with what are simple arrangements and often too simple lyrics, adding a slightly polished sheen to the dynamics of the rocky Little Whiskey and the more acoustic ballad Wherever You Are.
As the album progresses, however, a certain familiarity in the material begins to emerge. This is particularly true of the last four songs, starting with the primitive-sounding Other Things, which never rises much above its dirge-like intro. The following Please You and Main Street are both in the lengthy, stoner-jam bracket, again with lyrics about heartache and dying love that don’t stretch them or the listener. The closing Crash and Burn, at almost seven minutes the longest song, gives a nod to Neil Young in its plodding guitar jam excess but does settle into a pleasing robust groove by the end.
When they’re at their best Angus and Julia Stone are a class act, particularly when their voices blend sweetly together. Rubin saw that in them, clearly, when he asked to work with them, but he might have expected slightly stronger material to be at his disposal.
Track List:
1. A Heartbreak (04:16)
2. My Word for It (04:08)
3. Grizzly Bear (04:08)
4. Heart Beats Slow (04:35)
5. Wherever You Are (03:41)
6. Get Home (04:31)
7. Death Defying Acts (05:13)
8. Little Whiskey (03:36)
9. From the Stalls (05:09)
10. Other Things (02:59)
11. Please You (05:40)
12. Main Street (05:35)
13. Crash and Burn (06:36)
Deluxe Edition:
14. Do Without (Bonus Track) (04:15)
15. All This Love (Bonus Track) (04:05)
Summary:
Country: Australia
Genre: Indie
Format: tracks
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~772-980 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
