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Review |
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Judging by the bands recently poor turnout at the
Boardmasters festival in Newquay it would appear
to me that a lot of people have either never heard
of StringerBessant or don’t realise that the
duo make up one half of Reef as these guys really
do have in talent but are still hardly recognised
under the StringerBessant tag.
The debut StringerBessant album ‘Yard’
was released last year and it is an album which
we claimed to be perfect and we still standby
that statement as StringerBessant create the most
beautiful sounding sleepy acoustic songs that
could well create the best soundtrack to your
life.
Despite only releasing ‘Yard’ last
year StringerBessant are back with ‘Wild
Days’ a diverse new EP featuring a couple
of brand new tracks, a re-working of the classic
Reef song ‘Mellow’ aswell as a couple
of live songs.
The EP opens with ‘Mellow’ a song
which originally appeared on the debut Reef album
‘Replenish’ back in 1995, so 16 years
on the song has been reworked by Gary Stringer
and Jack Bessant and the song manages to stay
true to the original but this time around you
can clear hear that Stringer’s vocals have
got stronger over the years as they are spot on
and any Reef fan will be impressed with the reworking
of ‘Mellow’.
One of my favourite tracks on ‘Yard’
was ‘Self Is Here’ and it features
once again on ‘Wild Days’ and to be
honest it is hardly any different to the original
version of the song but hearing it again after
so many months has made me realise just how damn
talented StringerBessant are and how some musicians
gets better with age.
The EP title track ‘Wild Day’ is
a totally brand new track and it flows in the
typical StringerBessant stripped down style leaving
the dual vocals from Stringer and Bessant to take
you on such a beautiful sounding journey which
you will want to re visit time and time again.
‘Cross The Valley’ is another brand
new track and it shows off a slightly different
side of StringerBessant and sounds like it is
heavily influenced by both Reef and Tenacious
D as the song shows off clear elements of both
bands and works really well which leaves me wanted
to hear a lot more of this side of StringerBessant
in the near future.
The EP finishes with a double dosage of live
tracks with the real laid back near spooky sounding
‘Peeling Back’ taking you on a slow
paced journey full of harmonicas and soulful vocals,
whilst ‘Give Me The Keys’ finishes
the EP perfectly in a very beautiful upbeat way
with Stringer singing “Give me the keys,
give me the keys to your heart” with full
passion.
‘Wild Days’ seems like a bit of a
stop gap release whilst the band work on more
new material, it is not a perfect EP as it features
a lot of tracks which fans of the band will have
already heard or own but if StringerBessant are
new to you then this could well be the perfect
starting point as you get a couple of new tracks,
a couple of live tracks, a reworking of a classic
Reef track whilst also experiencing some of the
best tracks StringerBessant have wrote to date.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Gary Stringer
Jack Bessant |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Mellow
2. Self Is Here
3. Wild Day
4. Cross The Valley
5. Peeling Back [Live]
6. Give Me The Keys [Live] |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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