Kelley Stoltz – Circular Sounds (2008)

One thing I kind of miss from Finland are the amazing libraries, where you can, not only, find most of the books you'd ever be interested in reading, but also find pretty much any album on a CD or vinyl. Ten years ago I used to visit Helsinki libraries frequently to find interesting CDs that I could then copy to my laptop. It was still very much a time of CDs and mp3s. I had a habit of borrowing any albums that were released by the SubPop label, since pretty much everything they released around that time was quite brilliant. Circular Sounds was one of those albums I borrowed, having never before heard Stoltz's music. I remember being intrigued by some songs back then, but I didn't much care for the whole album. Later on, I happened to hear a song here and there on my i-Pod when it was on shuffle and suddenly I really felt like I had been missing out not listening to this album more.



This album was quite old at that time, so I could find it really cheap here in London and bought it. Having listened to this album more thoroughly now, I can understand why my feelings were mixed back in the day. There are numerous very different styles of music on this album. Some songs are excellent and some songs less so. There are lots of influences from late-60's bands such as Velvet Underground, The Beatles or Beach Boys, but it's somehow still impossible to call Kelley Stoltz just a retro psychedelia artist. There's a true variety of different songs here. As an album, this isn't necessarily that great because the styles change so much, but it's a great collection of individual songs.

The album starts with slightly off-key horns and piano sounds in the song Everything Begins. The melody is like from one of the Kinks albums. The next song, Tintinnabulation is a bit darker, but it also has very strong 60's influences. Birmingham Eccentric changes the melodic baroque pop into 60's style garage rock. The song basically sounds like a lost track from Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat. Gardenia slows things down a bit. This hypnotic folk song reminds me of some more playful Nick Drake songs. Mother Nature's Way has a waltz beat that wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-career Beatles album. Sure, the sounds are a bit more lo-fi. To Speak to the Girl resembles American rock bands of the late 60's. If I just heard this song from the radio, I could mistake it for a Grateful Dead song. Put My Troubles to Sleep has great rock pop melodies and a lazy rolling rhythm. It almost sounds like Super Furry Animals. When You Forget is one of my favourite songs on the album. The verses are very melancholic and dark, but the chorus is very upbeat and happy. In that sense, it reminds me of Happy Together by The Turtles. Your Reverie is a rock song with harder garage sounds and some hippy melodies. I Nearly Lost My Mind is probably the most psychedelic song on the album. It very much reminds me of 13th Floor Elevators or Jacco Gardner. Something More is a classic Beatles style song that has great melodic hooks and changes in tone. It also sounds a bit like a lost Wilco track. Reflection has some 60's surf rock influences along with excellent psychedelic guitars. Morning Sun has a latin-style beat and easygoing lazy melodies. The album ends with a very lo-fi psychedelic folk song You Alone.

I had never seen any Kelley Stoltz music videos before, but apparently there are quite a few of them. The music video for Your Reverie fits the music perfectly. There are some bad cut and paste video sequences where Kelley Stoltz is dancing with funny twitching moves around the world. His face and body has been photoshopped to quite ridiculous places and it's not even moving exactly in rhythm. This, if anything, is an indie music video.

I've mentioned before that I think retro is the new normal in music, since it's impossible to make anything truly new anymore. Kelley Stoltz is really good in bringing many different 60's retro styles to life. The result isn't polished too much with modern recording equipment either. It all sounds just nicely retro.

Listen to the album on Spotify.