The Staves
If I Was

Gloomy atmospheres.

A pale sun among the clouds.

Haze inside, fog outside.

Melancholy.

What could have been, but wasn't.

If you are in a particular period of your life, "If I was" might stick to you like the Japanese contestants stuck to the flypaper in "Mai dire Banzai" ("Takeshi's Castle" + "The Gaman").

They don't talk about lives on the edge, they don't talk about vices, they don't talk about politics, they don't talk about society's problems, but "The Staves" tackle the theme of love, often tormented, confused, sometimes cold as stone. To be clear, nothing new from a writing standpoint, but the result is always the same: if you're in that mood, you know that music will accompany your thoughts and it could be this.

If not, good for you, but this work is still worth a listen, don't stop at the first notes.

The sisters Jessica, Camilla, and Emily Staveley-Taylor are an ethereal British trio from Watford, and it can safely be said that they have been singing together forever.

They made their discography debut with a ukulele and a guitar, three ever-changing voices, good intentions, and the pervasive minimalism of "Dead & Born & Grown" (2012), but it's after opening some concerts of the "Bon Iver" tour that the girls meet Justin Vernon.

It's a crucial point, as the sound between the first and the second album changes almost radically, further highlighting the vocal quality of Jessica, Camilla, and Emily, thanks to the production of the multi-instrumentalist and singer from Wisconsin.

"Blood I Bleed", with a deeply spiritual approach, the first track of the album, immediately sets things clear. We are facing a maturation, the sophistication is evident, especially sonically, and it is here that Vernon leaves his fingerprints.

The emotion that the splendid vocal harmonization manages to convey (and already conveyed in the first work, although in the long run somewhat sterile, at times tiring) is amplified thanks to a musical setting finally suitable for not making the harmonic supports excessive or the phases of stylistic counterpoint redundant.

In "Black & White", Emily's voice, a cappella, almost impresses with its clarity, the initial drumming is enriched by the choral quality and an elegantly distorted electric guitar.

A vertical song is "Damn It all" which, without textual upheavals, in terms of mood swings (Even though I love you, I want you to go / Oh I don't know / Go back), has a beautiful path leading to the explosive climax at the end of the song.

Among the best moments "No me, No you, No more" (Cause you don't need me no more / You don't love me no more / You don't want me at all), "Teeth White" which is the track that most closely resembles an English folk style compared to the rest of the work, and the featuring with Vernon himself in "Make It Holy" (I could make you want me, make you need me, make you mine / I could make it holy, make it special, make it right), probably the best excerpt of the work. A guitar in F minor opens the track, enlivened with a cadenced and marching snare drum, until it allows the polyphony and timbral weave to flow.

I appreciated the musical profile. There's something of "The Corrs", "Fleet Foxes", and a lot of Justin Vernon, but, I admit, the thing that struck me the most is Emily's voice, which in the mid-high register, reminded me enormously of Joni Mitchell.

I believe the girls from Hertfordshire have great vocal potential, explored only partially.