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Elly Roberts reviews
Sub Pop Records
- Cat.no: RTRADCD291
- Released: February 2006
- Rating: 8/10
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.This wonderful DIY 13-tracker by Kelley Stoltz is a sun-kissed tribute to thehalcyon days of 60s pop, and a little bit more.
Instrumentally and vocally, the ghost of The Beatles and The Beach Boyshangs heavily over Below The Branches.
Morphing into a born again Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and psychedelicfolkie, Stolzt digs deep to revive the key components that turned his heroesinto icons, and it works.
In essence, he’s totally captured their care free spirit, with 21 centurytwists.
The San Fran ‘one man orchestra’ mixes styles familiar to 60s radio gems, ashe grapples with a subtle homage, adding his own flavours along the way. Asthe cacophony opens up the intro, on Wave Goodbye, we’re almost thrust intoa BB back-catalogue with wiry guitars leading the romp. Track three, EverThought Of Coming Back is an obvious BB’s throwback.
The clever add-ons come in the shape of Words and Little Lords, hippy stylerock-ballads which nestle neatly before another easy flowing gem Mystery,followed by the haunting echoes of Summer’s Easy Feeling. Memory Collector,a McCartney sound-alike, (and possibly a better title for the album), hasshades of late Beatles as he chomps at the keys.
Chirping birds, steel guitar, thumping drums are the prime features ofBirdies Singing as ‘McCartney’ creeps in through the back door once again -a great single, despite its quirkiness. Surprise, surprise: a possibleLennon take whips up The Sun, then another Beatlesesque piano ballad onWinter Girl. More Fab Four influences materialise on the keyboard romp ofPrank Call which leads nicely into some delicious La La La’s and xylophonesto round-off on No World.
All this was recorded in cramped living conditions in San Francisco on an 8track reel-to-reel.
The ‘memory collector’ has done his job well – ‘Surf’s Up’ for Kelley Stoltz.
Weblink:Electric City.org/intro.html
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Wave Goodbye
2. Little Lords
3. Ever Thought Of Coming Back
4. Words
5. Mystery
6. Summer’s Easy Feeling
7. Memory Collector
8. Birdies Singing
9. The Rabbit Hugged The Hound
10. The Sun Comes Through
11. Winter Girl
12. Prank Calls
13. No World Like The World
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.