Kelley Stoltz Circular Sounds WB rating out of 100

Accessible and grounded, Circular Sounds is a solid effort from San Francisco indie journeyman Kelley Stoltz, who is establishing himself as a modern day Ray Davies: underrated, unpretentious and unaffected, with a true knack for bringing everyday life to life.

The coupling of Stoltz’s smooth as silk vocals and his fresh and inventive guitar skills makes the album an endearing collection of lo-fi pop-rock songs, more good than bad, with added depth given by the uniformly excellent lyrics throughout the album. ‘Gardenia’ is a Paul Simon-inspired ballad with a superb melody and a cute yet not too precious refrain of “Gardenia, Gardenia, little flower/I’ve learnt to love you by the hour/Stronger than Perspex, clear as a window pane/I don’t know who she is/But I know her name”. A real highlight of the album, the song’s tone shifts in a sublime instrumental section, utilizing simple piano chords and the introduction of a very clearly Magical Mystery Tour sitar/guitar, increasing the intensity of the song slightly but not at the expense of the original style to be achieved.

Comparisons between Circular Sounds and The Kink’s ‘Golden Age’ albums such as the masterpiece The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) are incredibly apt. Tracks such as ‘I Nearly Lost my Mind’, ‘Put my Troubles to Sleep’ and ‘Morning Sun’ successfully express the day to day struggle of the everyman, modern city life and the desire for something more for which The Kinks’ frontman Davies was known. A variety of other influences from throughout the history of rock are drawn upon: solo-era John Lennon, Kansas, Billy Joel, mid-career Bob Dylan and New Order to name a few. However this level of synthesis from such varied styles is at times derivative, with one track in particular, ‘When you Forget’, sporting an almost carbon-copy of the melody of Elvis Costello’s hit ‘Girls Talk’ However this is really only a minor gripe; as a whole the songs on the album inhabit the grey area between good and great, with a few outstanding tracks.

One such outstanding moment is the penultimate song ‘Morning Sun’. Sounding like a mix between Rush and Bruce Springsteen, this short track shows the emotional depth that Stoltz’s voice can achieve, through the poetic quality of lyrics such as “Laying in my bed at night to rest/A pillow underneath by head is never second best/When I hear the wind is blowing/Soon the river will be flowing/Time for me to see the morning sun”. This is Stoltz at his best, able to provide a track with both musical and lyrical maturity, that is both listenable and cerebrally attractive. What stops Circular Sounds from being an outstanding release is the fact that Stoltz has definitely played on the safe side. As it stands the rollicking tune ‘I Nearly Lost my Mind’ is just another track, but could’ve been so much better if Stoltz had opted to further explore the use of backing vocals he scantily applied. This is just one example of some of the small undercutting that Stoltz makes on the album. However at the end of the day there are no more than a series of minor gripes with the album, and it remains a very solid output from a very solid musician.