Nov. 23, 2011 - Issue #840: Battle the world
equal parts REASON and MOONLIGHT
Jeff Stuart & the Hearts {recordings_bands_mg} equal parts REASON and MOONLIGHT {/recordings_bands_mg}
Independent, 2011
4
Jeff Stuart & the Heart's latest is as the title says: two equal parts. Reason comes through in a well-constructed album of muscular, full-band folk and clever songwriting: the way Stuart, on opener "Apple Tree" pleads, "Oh, oh, oh / I wanna go home" while musically the band refuses to give in to the same despair buoys the sentiment in a unique way. Same with the playful push of "I Was a Wolf," or "Swallowed by the Morning Sky," which moves from a bass-y bounce to being carried by string swells, eventually becoming more urgently beautiful as it rises to a cresendo. The moonlight, then, comes in terms of the album's cinematic scope, the atmosphere of a fully realized album, how all that impeccable arrangement transcends the feeling of structure. It's good art, cleverly crafted and spotlessly executed.
vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
Privacy Policy:
Vue respects your privacy. We will not forward your personal information to any other organization except as required by law, and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove comments for length, clarity and/or if they are illegal or inappropriate. Your email address is never shown to visitors to vueweekly.com. Read the whole policy at: http://vueweekly.com/privacy
Comments policy
Comments go online directly without first being seen or reviewed by editors at Vue. Don't personally attack people, don't be defamatory, don't be spam-atory, don't hawk your band, don't pretend to be someone else, be clear, be on topic, be nice. Read our extended comments policy here. »
We use Disqus for our comments system. What's that all about?
We found that managing the comment community at Vue was easier to do with a system like Disqus. If this isn't straightforward to you, get help here.