|
||
|
||
|
|
||
 |
"Steady Your Hands embraces a potpourri of sounds and the final result is an extremely wonderful album." "Not unlike My Morning Jacket's latest, Steady Your Hands brims with detached sincerity and grand arrangements. It's nothing we haven't heard before but I've always been a sucker for a sad-sack lothario who can sound both sweet and condescending when calling his anonymous lost love "honey." So if you're that's your sort of thing (and one can't imagine how it couldn't be), it's here in spades." "Nice homespun pop from these Cleveland-ites with nods to 60's pop and some occasionally forays into country ('Rock and Roll Boys & Girls') and dreampop ('So Long'). I did the straight-ahead stuff like 'City Lights' and 'Girl' as well. With Mike Uva also on the label, Collectible Escalators is gonna be a label to be reckoned with my friends" "On their second LP, this Akron, OH, quintet attracts when it whispers, with hushed piano, the lightest guitars (as if petting a sleeping cat), caressed drums, and an overall mild, somber hue with Joey Beltram's singing, not many miles from the sonic terrain of The Band, Red House Painters, or recent Jeff Tweedy. The sense of wide-open space meeting the expanse of time that is at the heart of American roots music pervades, rich and dewy. Ditto the spare folk of the thoroughly jaded 'Rock and Roll Boys and Girls,' the waltzing piano pop of 'She Comes Saturday,' and the 'Homeward Bound'-like hoedown hop of 'Invitation.' A few up-tempo tappers like 'City Lights,' with its groovy breeze, round out the rest in fine style." ". . . tremulous songs of melancholic passion. . . . From the downcast party angst of 'Rock and Roll Boys and Girls' to the gentle insistence of 'City Lights' to the after hours Ryan Adams rumination of 'The Things You Want But Can Not,' Goodmorning Valentine is artful without descending into artiness, quiet without fading into the background, and introspective without wallowing in self-absorption." "[It's] a wonder this band isn’t an international sensation. Singer/guitarist Joey Beltram has a fluttering, passionate voice; his vocal flourishes have the kind of soul that would make Stuart Murdoch green with envy. He sets the mood with the ethereal and downcast 'Tiger and the Leper,' a chamber-pop entrée with goosebump-inducing orchestration. . . . Beltram and the rest of the band . . . provide a beautiful world of unforgettable melodies and sonic delicacy." "'Rock and Roll Boys and Girls' leads this reviewer to wonder what is lurking beneath the lovelorn exterior of Goodmorning Valentine, and that sense of mystery and depth is what really sets them apart. Sure, there is that outward indie with an "I," there are the well-crafted lyrics -- but it is the thoughtfulness of Steady Your Hands which will bring a casual listener back time and time again. "All in all, an extremely stimulating and varied collection of intelligent pop tunes from a band clearly riding on a creative high." (5+ OUT OF 6) "Centered around the songwriting skills of Joey Beltram, this band has a sound that is slick, direct, and effective. Beltram's tunes recall some of the more subdued songs recorded by Jay Farrar. Steady Your Hands is slow and reflective... incorporating a wide variety of instruments and styles. The lyrics and melodies are exceptional throughout all twelve tracks. Beltram's deep, mournful voice is perfect for the style of songs he composes." "Young bands face a bevy of insurmountable hurdles in the recording process. . . . Goodmorning Valentine suffered from the desire for perfection. For 14 months, the band recorded, ripped apart and recorded again its sophomore effort, Steady Your Hands. The result is a CD by a local group that sounds like it should be bursting into the national consciousness." Akron Beacon Journal back |
|