Still Life at the wheel By Michelle Dee

Photograph Gallery   Still Life Gallery 1   Gallery 2

After a promising start, a distinctive vocal, which can only be described through emotions rather than words, tells a story of a road trip gone sour. Short chords punctuate the verse and, at the wheel, gathers pace. The chorus kicks in followed by rolling guitars. One or two of the backing vocals seem superfluous but what do I know I am not a musician. The now deliriously swirling guitar reaches a climactic crescendo and brings the track skidding to a halt.

Track two is a lot more visceral. murder by proxy is an aural mix of soft and loud. This juxtaposition between verse and chorus was at first quite hard on the ear. After the third or fourth hearing this variation served to emphasize the emotional outburst of the chorus.

Whether the words are borne out of personal experience I know not, but there are enough explosive outpourings for a number of rejections followed by their subsequent heartbreaks. Raw isn't the word the pain expressed within has the ability to lacerate the toughest heart. This one tells the bittersweet tale of love and loss, a well-trodden path it has to be said, but I haven't heard it done with so much impassioned vitriol.

The third track is a gentle acoustic outing but no less evocative. Those perfect moments of times past are poetically described and reflect the wistful longing in all of us. seventeen lights a spark inside of you whether you are a young teen, a twenty something, or nearer thirty than you would care to admit. Maybe you don't hold any truck with this measure we call age but you remember something, some long forgotten time when life presented a never-ending stream of possibilities…

Still Life use themes that are familiar but they have the ability to surprise the most cynical of music lovers. At a guess I would say they were still in their infancy and may well be experimenting with their sound and structure. However they seem to have a good grasp of what works both musically and lyrically. My only criticism would be one I often make; the choice of which track gets to be the title track.

Either of the other two tracks would hold their own as bona-fide singles more so, I feel, than at the wheel. I look forward to watching them performing live to see whether they can recreate the same depth of emotion on stage. Definitely a CD for the watch this space pile.

Still Life are: Mike Richmond James Paddison Andy Clark Phil Bean Paul Terry Email; band@stilllifeonline.com www.stilllifeonline.com At the wheel was recorded at The Digital Factory in Hull.

Check the thisisUll.com Still Life Gallery at the Sesh.

Photograph Gallery   Still Life Gallery 1   Gallery 2

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