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The Stills
Without Feathers
(Vice/Atlantic)
The Music Box's #15 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2006, Volume 13, #5
Written by John Metzger
Sophomore albums are frequently problematic, and surviving them is key to a
group’s longevity. While it would have been perfectly understandable if, in the
wake of the critical success that greeted Logic Will Break Your Heart,
The Stills explicitly had applied an identical formula to its follow-up
Without Feathers, it’s also quite likely that had it done so, the ensemble
would have become lost in the never-ending stream of up-and-coming bands that
are fitted with monikers beginning with the word "the." Not that there aren’t
similarities between The Stills’ two endeavors. After all, its music not only
has remained rooted in the same basic tenets of ’80s rock that permeated its
debut — that is, U2, The Smiths, and The Cure — but also the themes of love,
death, and loneliness have continued to pervade its lyrics. Nevertheless,
there’s something bigger and bolder about Without Feathers, and in
essence, it’s a simultaneous refinement and broadening of the collective’s
artistic vision.
With its loosely-knit reflections upon life and love in a post-9/11 world,
Logic Will Break Your Heart was, whether by intention or not, The Stills’
first stab at creating a concept album. On Without Feathers, the band
fulfills its objective in ways that go beyond the narrative flow of its songs’
titles (with In the Beginning, In the End, and Interlude
being the most obvious among them). The effort’s opening line ("this story ends
in bloodshed") gives away its conclusion, and sure enough the outing’s love-torn
central characters are left lying "with open sores" upon their living room
floor. Granted, the tale of a romantic entanglement gone awry is hardly
groundbreaking, but The Stills succeeds in keeping its ruminations sounding
remarkably fresh.
All of this, of course, would be for naught, if the music didn’t suitably
support the band’s expansive aspirations, and it’s here where The Stills has
made its greatest strides. Without question, the sonic layers of Logic Will
Break Your Heart were filled with dramatic tension, but on Without
Feathers, the ensemble shades its lyrics with cinematic overtures that are
larger than life. It’s clear that, in this regard, The Stills has studied U2’s
canon — and The Joshua Tree, in particular — quite closely. It also has
learned its lessons remarkably well, and as a result, its magisterial
arrangements rise and fall in similar fashion. Never is this more apparent than
on the immediately captivating charge of In the Beginning, during which,
the collective sends a galloping cascade of guitars tumbling over a crest of
bass and drums, straight into the outstretched arms of an organ’s spiritual
glow. Elsewhere, the group effectively blends Simon and Garfunkel-ish harmonies
with a Beatle-esque melodic structure to sculpt the melancholy Oh Shoplifter,
and it transforms the sad-eyed, piano intro of It Takes Time into an
anthem, complete with hand claps and horns, that finds common ground among Bruce
Springsteen, Phil Spector, and The Ramones. If there were any lingering doubts
that The Stills’ ambitions are huge, Without Feathers ought to provide
the proof necessary to silence them. Better still, it does so without sinking
into maudlin mediocrity. 
Without Feathers is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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