American indie rocker and studio wizard Kelley Stoltz is one of the most effortlessly excellent songwriters of our time… and he comes to Ramsgate on July 7th!
After spending years on the road playing rhythm guitar for Echo & the Bunnymen, the psych-pop genius is ready to tour his own music once again.
“Absorbing, sophisticated, feel-good, and nostalgic music like this that makes you want to hang out with the kids from The Jetsons” – CLASH
‘The Stylist’, Kelley Stoltz‘s 17th album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 ‘Antique Glow’, with a collection of 10 new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since – but luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might’ve appeared on the fringes of the late 60’s or mid 80’s.
Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records ‘Below the Branches’, ‘Double Exposure’ and ‘Ah! (etc)’ Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, “I chose the title ‘the Stylist’ because musically I guess that’s what I am… because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It’s all in the pop-rock vein, but there’s usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That’s always been the case with my albums.”
Stoltz played rhythm guitar in Echo & the Bunnymen for a few years, and ‘We Grew So Far Apart’ clangs like a lost Liverpool 80’s classic. Stoltz says, “There’s a touch more piano on this record… going back to my Sub Pop days, when I was writing more Beatle-y bits… Harry Nilsson… that kind of thing”. Indeed, the piano led ‘It’s a Cold World’ plays like a holy union of Todd Rundgren and the Zombies where Stoltz declares, “it’s a cold world at times, but I’m not ready to give up the fight.”
Thankfully, after 23 years the beat goes on… and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, ‘The Stylist’ is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalog of one of the great songwriters of our time.
“The Bay Area’s most reliable purveyor of psych-pop charmers” – UNCUT
“Absolutely brimming with brightness and charm… delightful, put frankly” – Drowned in Sound
“It’s a rare artist who gets MOJO as excited on their seventh(ish) album as we got on their first, but then Kelley Stoltz is a rare artist. His always-stirring mix of pop and psych tastes different every time, but hardly ever fails to satisfy” – MOJO
