★★★★★

Five Stars
In an interview with Cherwell last term Brian Briggs, Stornoway’s lead singer, promised a more mature second album “about growing up” and with an extra sense of escapism, where the band name “seems to fit even better, [compared to first album ‘Beachcomber’s Windowsill’] in a more remote and slightly wilder place.” Bold claims from the frontman of the Oxford based band, but ones that are most definitely met.
From the opening whirling organ chords and the loose and slightly psychedelic drum groove of ‘You Take Me As I Am,’ — outlining Briggs’ wedding day and reminiscent, for myself at least, of Bruce Springsteen’s second offering The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle — the album instantly implements the sense of escapism Briggs alluded to at the band’s homecoming show at the Oxford Town Hall on February 15th.
Jonathan Quin, the keyboard player/multi-instrumentalist for the band and ex-Oxford postgraduate music student, creates complex yet seemingly infectious arrangements to accompany Briggs’s heartfelt delivery of his sincere lyrical content which effortlessly floats above the musical texture, never dominating yet somehow also never intruded upon. The chorus of the first single, ‘Knock Me On the Head’ showcases these infectious arrangements in all their glory with the syncopated musical undercurrents being supplemented by four-part vocal harmony that is in direct contrast to the driving, and almost motoric, verse keyboard synth and drum accompaniment.
Stornoway are a band firmly rooted in Oxford, with Briggs and Quin having met at Wolfson College during their time as postgraduates there. Briggs was researching bird activity on the Thames whilst Quin was interested in Russian folk song. They spoke of “zorbing through Cowley” during their first album and subsequent hit single. Whilst there are no obvious direct references to Oxford in Tales from Terra Firma, song titles such as the stripped back and acoustic ‘The Great Procrastinator’ (performed on the balcony of the town hall on February 15th) with lyrics such as “I’m a scientist with far too many metaphors and far too little data to conclude in time” seem to coincide with the predicaments and day-to-day life of the Oxford student particularly well!
Although, as previously mentioned, the complex and stylistically interwoven arrangements of earlier tracks such as ‘You Take Me As I Am’ and another infectious pop-hit ‘The Bigger Picture’ are particularly enjoyable, and induce a certain amount of uncontrollable foot-stomping and embarrassing head-bobbing, the stand-out track award for me would definitely go to the final offering of ‘November Song.’ A simple folk tune comparable to some early Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel perhaps, it offers the perfect closure to a great album with pure simplicity. Sang microphone and amp-less live, the silence throughout the crowd on each performance speaks volumes (link below) and for me, perhaps, it is the memory of the Town Hall on that February night and the sense of electricity that was present during ‘November Song’ which leads to my claiming that a simple folk-song, the dregs of the album if you like, is a “stand-out track.” Nonetheless, it offers the perfect reflective end to an escapist and reflective album, ambitious as a second offering but completely justified without falling into the “second album trap.” Definitely worth a listen.
