The Staves – All Now

Indie Folk

61%

 

There’s so much fulfilment to be found in creating art simply for innate joy of creating. Putting paint to canvas, words to paper, stringing notes into song. It doesn’t matter if it’s not a masterpiece, it doesn’t have to serve a greater purpose, hell it needn’t even be for anyone but yourself. Anyone who nurtures that spark within them that compels them to bring something beautiful into the world is to be encouraged. 

But when we find ourselves at the other end of the process, engaging with art, that innate joy of creating doesn’t always translate into the work itself. An album isn’t good by merely existing. In fact the best albums are often those with the most drive and intent behind them, albums with some unifying theme, purpose or inspiration which ties everything together.

It is at the crossroads between these two schools of thought that I find myself while listening to All Now. The latest album from The Staves sees the folk trio down to a duo, with Emily Stavely-Taylor stepping away from the band to spend time with her young children. Choosing to forge ahead, one sister down, suggests a desire to strike while the iron is hot in the wake of 2021’s Good Woman. An album which saw their songwriting take on a new level of candour and openness, and their arrangements branching out from their folk origins to dabble with indie rock and electronic elements. That record opened so many fresh avenues for the band to pursue, new sounds to refine and emotions still to unravel in their lyrics. And with their sister’s focus now on her growing family, an album about growing older, priorities shifting, and lives being pulled in different directions practically writes itself. 

Despite this, All Now feels like a record with little to say, struggling to carve an identity of its own amongst their discography. The golden chorus of the title track isn’t enough to overcome the sparse monotonous synth beat driving the track forward, and on the flip side of the coin the anthemic swells of ‘You Held It All’ feel wasted on the track’s repetitive lyricism. ‘Fundamental Memory’, ‘Make A Decision’ and ‘Great Wave’ all play around with different sounds, but none of them seem able to flesh out their ideas to the degree that Good Woman did. The first hints at grander art rock ambitions in between sparse harmonies, the second home to dashes of emphatic bass and the odd drum fill that all hint at what could have been, with the third laying down a simple moody groove and a powerhouse fuzzy alt rock chorus that genuinely feels like the foundation of something great still waiting to be built upon. Rather than using the ambition of their last record as a jumping off point, this record strips most of that away, but without leaving anything behind to take its place. The dull elevator music of ‘So Gracefully’ feels worlds apart from fantastic folk arrangements of Dead & Born & Grown.

There’s little rhyme nor reason behind this record, but it will be a cold day in hell before The Staves release a record without at least some spark of brilliance. Despite being one sister down, their signature harmonies are just as spellbinding as ever, even on the record’s lowest moments. And they shine even brighter on the few tracks where everything comes together. ‘I Don’t Say It, But I Feel It’ builds a superb dreamy vibe between its warm groove and shimmering synths, ‘After School’ is a wonderfully fleshed out heel turn that delivers lush 70s soft rock vibes, while the jaunty folk of album highlight ‘I’ll Never Leave You Alone’ has classic Staves written all over it. I’m glad for the creative spark that spawned these few flashes of brilliance, but they are too few and far between to keep me coming back to All Now, especially when the rest of their discography has more to offer.