Kelley Stoltz

To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

By Erin Wolf
Published: October 13th, 2010 | 1:00pm

Kelley Stoltz is a music-lovers’ musician who gets tons of critical flak for his obvious affectations. The Michigan native (by way of New York and San Francisco), released his debut The Past Was Faster (Telegraph) in 1999 before landing a contract with Sub Pop in 2005. To Dreamers, his fourth release with the label is, in typical Stoltz fashion, homage to influential songwriters such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and John Lennon. He slyly pulls off this take-away style through solid musicianship and an ability to pen a catchy-as-hell song.

Opener “Rock & Roll with Me” is a straight up glam-rock head-bopper, shaking to the brim with plenty of cavernous and glitzy reverb, shake-shake handclaps, and saucy brass, making for a neat slide into the mellow, folksy “Pinecone.” Later, Stoltz goes into punk-psych territory with the running ballad “Keeping the Flame.”

With To Dream, Stoltz has accomplished creating a modern throwback album that’s listenable and lacking those cringing, obvious qualities that come along with throwback albums. This album is meant to be all about dreamers, after all, so who is anyone to judge Stoltz for not dreaming of his own musical bliss, seeking creative solace in the sounds of the past?

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Kelley Stoltz official Web site

Kelley Stoltz MySpace page

Sub Pop Records