Stornoway

Beachcomber's Windowsill (4AD)

By Erin Wolf
Published: August 20th, 2010 | 7:00am

On their debut LP, Oxford group Stornoway creates cerebral, down-to-earth pop balanced between the twee sensibilities of Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura, rock of idols Teenage Fanclub, lush folk of contemporaries Grizzly Bear, and vocal stylings of art-rockers Slaraffenland. The band sits poised and prettily complacent, their music steeped in character and delicate emotion while remaining effortlessly captivating.

In his boyish tenor, guitarist Brian Briggs sings earnestly about girls, school, and small-town life, such as on opener “Zorbing,” where he intones of starting university while filled with the thoughts of one girl. His voice quakes on the lines “I’ve been singing you this song / Inside a bubble,” and with his message out in the open, the bubble’s been popped in a world now sympathetic to his introspective plight. Plaintive pianos (Jonathan Ouin) and emotive strings (Rahul Satija) play up the denser portions of the album, which sparkle with melancholy at its most beautiful (“The Coldharbour Road”) and jumpstart those with world-wise spirit (“Boats and Trains”). Trumpet courtesy of Adam Briggs builds up the poppier moments of songs like “I Saw You Blink,” where Brian Briggs implores, “Are you the one I’ve been waiting for?”

The highlight of Beachcomber’s Windowsill is “We Are the Battery Human,” which underlies the simplicity of the band’s mission in both musical and lyrical composition. Banjos softly strum as the members sing in unison over shimmering, reverbed guitars, “We need to go online each day / But inside we don’t get no reception / So join the new revolution / To free the battery human / ‘Cause we were born to be free range.” Its simplicity makes the song a benchmark for a movement of freethinkers in modern pop that a new generation would easily embrace.

Stornoway is a vehicle for Briggs’ musings and the band’s admiration of Scottish pop bands, but comes across as a stronger statement in the end through sincerity and spirit. Beachcomber’s Windowsill burns bright with an honesty that ends up being the strongest “instrument” in their assembly.

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4AD Records