Dead and born and grown is the debut album from folk singer-songwriter sisters The Staves. It’s definitely a modern classic of the folk genre, which was brought into the wider musically sphere most prominently by the likes of ‘Mumford and Sons’ and ‘Laura Marling’ to mention a few. The sisters from Watford bring a diverse musicality to this album. The vocal harmonies are brilliant, all three of them sing and it’s one of the most charming things about this genre that I don’t believe there is enough of in popular music.
One of the stand-out of songs of the album is ‘Tongue behind my teeth’, which is great in its simplicity. The driving stringed bass line and the solid guitar part are slowly embellished by layers of vocal harmonies, finishing in a climactic ending. This song very much defines the best elements of this album; a lot of artists try and fill out their albums with string sections, trumpets and sampling.
The Staves have kept it very simple and stripped back: and there is a lot to be said for that. This is also shown very well in the title song of the album ‘Dead & Born & Grown’ which is just guitar and vocals. They clearly have enough confidence in their sound to feel that they don’t need all the bells and whistles. They just say what they want to say. The similarities to other singer-songwriters are very notable. The guitar playing style of Jessica Staveley-Taylor does draw many parallels with Laura Marling. As much as I like this album, my bigges criticism is, although it is extremely well executed in all that it is trying to achieve, it doesn’t push any boundaries, which is unfortunate.
Clearly the sisters have a lot of musical talent and, if they put their minds to it, is isn’t beyond the realms of imagination that they could have come up with something slightly more innovative and creative. This is a very good first album from The Staves and a solid platform for them to continue making good music.
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