:: The Stoics - Relatives

The Stoics

Hailing from Launceston in Tasmania, The Stoics have been one of the Apple Isle's most promising bands for quite a while now. Audiences have fallen in love with them as they have toured with artists such as Claire Bowditch, Bluejuice and Yves Kleine Blue, now this five-piece have delivered with their debut album. There is just so much to like about Relatives, if you like infectious music that seems to cover a lot of different genres then this is an album that is going to be stuck in your stereo for a long time to come. The ‘airy’ guitars of opening track ‘First Thought’ win you over straight away and then Ciaran van den Berg’s vocals (he is also responsible for the ‘airy’ guitar) makes this a really sweet sounding track… you know if the rest of the album is this good you are on to something special. One thing that does stand-out about Relatives is the fact that every track sounds vastly different. The piano samples in ‘Everything Else Is Easy’ makes it extremely catchy while the electronica and brass of ‘I’m Here’ makes it one of the most powerful tracks on the album. One of the highlights however is ‘Nestorlay’, a brilliant sounding track that has the positional to become one of those ‘great’ tracks that you listen to over and over and are always telling your friends about. ‘Stupid’ does the unthinkable and makes a sombre song catchy while the mix-up of pace in ‘Head In The Sand’ builds up to something so epic that you can’t help but think that these guys are experienced beyond their years. The slowed down ‘James’ reveals a smoothy melody while ‘Safe Here’ is a nice catchy infectious pop track. The Stoics once again show their brilliance on ‘Up As We Go’. From the opening guitar strains you can tell it’s going to be rock driven, but you can’t tell just how great it is until the vocals kick in. ‘Worries’ and ‘Aqueous’ are smooth and atmospheric while ‘Light & Dark’ once again brings power to the album. This is a truly remarkable debut album, one that The Stoics should be really proud of. All the promise they have shown us over the years has ended up creating one of the albums of the year.