Written by: Jordan Stevenson This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Music Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Stands – Horse Fabulous (2005) » The Music Mag
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The Stands – Horse Fabulous (2005)
In 2003, Liverpool was producing a lot of exciting young bands; The Coral had released an incredible psychedelic garage rock-tinged debut, The Zutons were causing a lot of press excitement and then there was The Stands. The first two went on to bigger things while The Stands fell by the wayside which is a dreadful shame since this album is better than anything they’ve put out.
A cohesive, passionate collection of tracks, fused with incredible detail, touches of 60s pop and glam, wrapped up in delicate lyrical touches, Horse Fabulous manages to stand well above the pack in British rock.
“Turn the World Around” glides along at a calm pace, weaving expert melodies with singer Howie Payne’s weathered vocals gently working around the layers. “Nearer than Green” dabbles in light orchestration as Payne laments with the fervour of Neil Halstead. “When The Night Draws In” sounds like a unholy mix of The Mavericks and The Byrds and is the arguable highlight.
Still, this is a band that broke up shortly after this release, possibly on the cusp of writing that song which propelled them into the mainstream. If you were going to take a chance on anyone from Liverpool these days, you should have made it this lot.
