Still Corners – Creatures of an Hour (2011)

I was introduced to the London-based dream pop band Still Corners by the 'albums of the year' listings by one of the record shops here in the UK. The album on that list, however, was the band's second album. Creatures of an Hour is the band's debut album and it's a lot less electronic than their subsequent albums. This is why I probably like this one the best. There was at least one absolutely brilliant song on the second album and that's how I got interested in the band, but on the whole, I think this more organic sounding dream pop album is more to my liking. Still Corners remind me of Beach House a little bit, but where Beach House sounds amazing mainly because of the excellent vocals, Still Corners gets its power from great sounds and good, not extensive, use of electronic instruments. I bought this CD second hand at a local record shop with a very reasonable price.



Like many other dream pop bands, this too is a collaboration of just two individuals. It's quite amazing how far having a decent vocalist and one multi-instrumentalist will go. The multi-instrumentalist Greg Hughes is also a producer, which probably explains why the sounds are so good even on a debut album. Some of the songs are very intimate and fairytale-like, while some others use huge echos and sounds that are more appropriate for bigger venues.

The album starts with soft organ sounds and ticking guitars in the song Cuckoo. This song particularly reminds me of Beach House or The XX. The only difference is probably that Still Corners usually always have a very sharp beat on the background. Circulars has some more psychedelic sounds and it might be compared to some more recent MGMT songs, even if the vocals are way too muffled for the likeness to be perfect. Endless Summer uses more authentic drum nad guitar sounds, which makes me think of earlier comparisons, such as Julee Cruise. Into the Trees has some essentially 2010's sounding echoey surf-guitars that now seem to define the turn of the decade from 00's to 10's. The White Season uses endearing blinking synth sounds and childlike vocals. Arriving to the chorus, though, the mood changes more to a surreal experience. I Wrote in Blood has some old school murder-ballad stylings with slightly off-key sliding synth sounds. The Twilight Hour really sounds a lot like Julee Cruise, at least until the drum beat kicks in. It's crazy to look back now and realise that Julee Cruise made this kind of music before anyone else was in the late 80's. Velveteen has some fantastic melancholic psychedelia. The bass lines are very simple, but quite striking. Demons is a haunting folk ballad that reminds me of the Finnish folk singer Mirel Wagner. The album ends with the sung Submarine, that reminds me of many Krautrock bands of the late 70's. The drum beat and guitars are quite similar to the sounds used by Tangerine Dream and other such bands.

It's quite appropriate for the weather outside that the music video I found is for Endless Summer. Just when I'm writing this blog post, it has been a crazy warm summer in UK that has lasted for two months already. The music video is quite typical small budget music video for a band that's just starting out. There is footage shot with handheld camera about a night out in a club and out on the town. Also, what's catching your attention, is the rolling fan that cools down the party people.

Still Corners is probably not the kind of band that I would ever consider that important to me, but this is a great album to listen to every once in a while. I'm slightly disappointed that their later albums went too electronic, since this kind of subtle electronica on top of analog instruments is a lot better than full blast electronic music.

Listen to the album on Spotify.