Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We might as well all face the facts that we are drawn inexplicably to the enigmatic darkness, to the shadow that refuses to bend to the light but which entices upon the same energy, which acts as a black hole on the emotions, extracting and enticing the soul to love the poster “bad boy”, the “femme fatale”, to rage alongside the music that makes the heart beat faster rather than the type that soothes and places the muscle under a texture of forgiveness and satisfied regulation…we love the darkness, we crave for it in moments of happiness, we embrace it when the wind turns and we feel the chill of another life impinge upon our own; darkness is what we demand when there is Nothing To Expect.

The darkness though requires light to shine around it, you cannot survive the vacuum of constant dusk, the shadows are only worth watching when silhouetted by the bright and definable, and as in nature and human spirit, darkness and light work well together when joining spirits and meanings, and one that is encapsulated by the Napoletanos band Stella Diana as they bathe in shadow and live in light of their latest album, Nothing To Expect.

Boundaries are meant to be pushed, we are obliged, urged even to see the line and cross it in the name of experimentation and investigation, and so Stella Diana find themselves striding new ground as one of the premier shoe gazing fraternity, for if there is nothing to expect then we can only be overjoyed and impressed when the project and the projected hand out with pride sensitivity, honour, and a cool groove in which to nod slowly in appreciation and awe.

Across tracks such as Sleepless Girl, In Abeyance, Regulus, and the finale of the recording, Marianne, Stella Diana rises to the occasion of expectancy and set a creative new high, one of passion, one of indestructability, of required listening.

If there is nothing to expect, then we cannot be disappointed, but when the music appears from out from the shadow’s lure and into the light, we are treated to an innovative form of sensationalism, and one that loves the illumination of a thousand smiling faces. A sonically cool release, Stella Diana triumph in well-lit glory.

Stella Diana’s Nothing To Expect is out now and available via Vipchoyo/A State Of Flux Records.

Ian D. Hall