Good Woman? Please, Good Women. British sisters Staveley-Taylor are back after The Way is Read‘ – in collaboration with yMusic -, and six years on from their last album of originals, If I Was. The new LP, Good Woman, is a record so rich with beauty that they are able to once again sound overwhelming.
The album leads us to the best that girl power can bring to the music industry. Angelic rhythms and voices that can be played along with any mood of our lives. Be it a moment of supreme happiness, introspection, reflection, or sadness. Whatever you want. The Staves have the right therapy for you.
We set off on the discovery with the title track Good Woman. A slow-burn that introduces us to the record and, and that would fit perfectly to introduce them for those who don’t know The Staves. The Staveley-Taylor Sisters are not just ‘Good Women’ for the yes or no situation. They’re genuine. They do what they want when they want and, well, if it gives, how they want to. It’s empowerment at its finest. And it doesn’t need to have too many frills to be genuine. It just needs to be said, with the right words, at the right time.
We move on to Best Friend. Mind you, I’m a suspect in writing this. After a minute I had the ‘Love’ button on Spotify pressed. And listening more than once, more and more, I’m convinced it was the best thing I did. The song is fresh. Very fresh. So fresh that a sea breeze is blowing directly across my face, guiding my hair to other destinations, making me, deep down, happy. It’s friendship. It is youth. It’s nostalgia. Time to grab the car and go on a road trip? A track that definitely needs to be on your playlist.
Careful, Kid, because The Staves can also pull us to a darker, oops, sorry, heavier side. In the background there’s no naughty guitar destroying everything in the studio: it’s just a voice memo, recorded by Camila Staveley-Taylor, with her mobile phone – as she confided to Stereogum magazine.
Sensibly halfway through the album, we find heaven – and three angelic voices knocking on our door: Nothing’s Gonna Happen shows the vocal power of each of the artists and how the momentum of a few vocal cords can charm anyone. It’s genius. It’s beautiful. It’s definitely the most beautiful representation of perfect…Women.
We close with a golden key, and, irony, something that feels like a sublime message to the first song of the record. It’s called Waiting On Me To Change, and we have Emily, Jessica and Camilla and the help of a piano. They charm us one last time. With a very powerful message where “I’ll change, I’ll change, I’ll change when I want to” could be something we should have aware of in us, every day of our lives, all the time. We should change, but change for us, and change when we feel comfortable doing so. And, with this message, they leave the room, with us stunned by the incredible forty-five minutes that rushed by.
Whether you’re a Good Woman or a Good Man, hopefully, you’ll have a Best Friend, let the kid know he’ll be on a less than certain path starting with a Careful, Kid and that Next Year, Next Time. Ah, but let him/her know, Nothing’s Gonna Happen if he/she sits still waiting for some Sparks, or Paralysed waiting for a sign. Devotion is needed, and with that devotion will surely come Failure’ but deep down he has tried, and with that trying he should at least try to be Satisfied. And he will be Trying it once again soon. But he can’t be Waiting On Me To Change if that flow needs him to reflect first. It was a pun. A pun on the twelve songs that make up this beautiful record. And it’s the best way to describe such a sweet record. Listen up. Because everything seems to be so very well connected by these Good Women.
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