Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Unashamedly, unapologetically, modestly, The Cold Stares return to the music listener’s attention with an album that opens up the sense of looking at your roots, of taking the aural photograph album and dusting off the memories to find what is essentially home; the place perhaps not where you believe you have found paradise, but that world where you first cut your teeth as your family, for good or bad, instructed you on the fundamentals of life, the foundations of your time on Earth.
The Southern is an homage wrapped up in the cinematic experience, not just a stroll down memory lane but an intention to piece together a custom, a belief of the heritage where voices in music are formed and where the ritual of ovation is tantamount.
The way that the band expose heritage throughout the album finds a way to the listener’s soul with a blues rock distinction and insisting that we all should accept, hold close that one place on the map that we were born to; not necessarily to hold up with pride, but to find the images, the truths that bind us to those who walked the routes, the roads before.
The stories weave with elegance, the attention paid to the tales and narration from older family members are honoured and sophisticated, and as tracks such as Looking For A Fight, Confession, the superb sound of Seven Ways To Sundown, No Love In The City Anymore, and Morality Blues rise up and show their muscle, the souls of Chris Tapp, Brian Mullins, and Bryce Klueh become understood, perhaps more so that any time in their significant career.
The Southern is the bond we have with the stories our families told us, and show no matter what may happen next, wherever we find ourselves in the world and how we view the sunrise, our lives are made more fantastic by having listened to the old ones speak of all they lived through, all the images retained, they are more than just worth a stare; they are the guide that pushes us onward.
The Cold Stares release The Southern on 6th September via Mascot Records.
Ian D. Hall