The cover of If I Was, their second full-length release, shows the Stavely-Taylor sisters, Emily, Jessica and Camilla, walking away from the viewer along a wintry, tree-lined path, bundled against the cold but confidently proceeding in step towards some destination known only to them. The photo is welcoming yet also maintains a distance, a separation that says we, the viewers, may be a part of the framing of the photograph, but we will never be part of its center. Such is the nature of the sisterly bond, of the familial cocoon. It can be sensed but never truly felt, except by those within. When such bonds embrace a collection of artists or performers, the resulting work can be uniquely evocative, deeply emotive, and deceptively embraceable yet fleeting.
Think of the Roche sisters or the Waterson siblings. One senses in their work both the insularity born of familial bond and a related organic element born of shared intimacies. A listener is never completely a part of so intimate a performance, is necessarily apart from it, because we are aware of the artist’s bond. It is evidenced in the nuances of their singing, which echo years of private harmonies shared amongst only them. So, too, the Staves form the sum of a beautiful whole when they blend their voices together on this album, from start to finish, with seeming effortlessness. The evidence of live videos on YouTube presents a group of singers who communicate almost empathically in performance.
If I Was is a bold demonstration of the sister’s sonic mastery. This is a very English album, its sonic DNA formed from the moors, fields, and woods of the English countryside and evocative of the great English folk revival of the late 1960s and early ’70s. The sisters even embellish their songs with archaic and regional language to emphasize the sense of place: “Woe betide you” the sisters sing in “Blood I Bleed”, while “heavy hands scupper the best laid plans” in “Let Me Down”. Throughout, Emily, Jessica and Camilla exchange lead and supporting vocals, often working to present a singular thought or feeling from multiple internal perspectives, adding not just sonic but psychological depth and complexity to these relationship-centered songs.
This approach works especially well on the album’s opener, “Blood I Bled”, which functions as a rallying cry for an army entering battle if that army were a single heart preparing to open itself up to feeling and possible harm. The multiple voices undercut but do not undermine the primary speaker, serving instead to justify her cause and supply strength. The song brings to mind another collection of eclectic sibling artists, the Bushes, Kate, Paddy, and John. “Blood I Bled” rumbles with Hounds of Love-era heavy percussion and wall of French horns. Lyrically, too, in their best moments the sisters can rise to the unapologetically exposed feminine perspective that Kate Bush mastered as on the “unruly wild blood” rabbit-in-a-snare narrative of “Steady” or in the “empty chair” image of “Black & White”. At other times, though, the songwriting is limited to literal reports of me and you feelings waiting for a strong symbolic image upon which to attach. Call this a sign of their young age that points a direction for future growth. It is not a fatal flaw if their lyrical imagination has not yet caught up to the maturity of their sonic skills.
Bon Iver-leader Justin Vernon’s production is crisp and non-intrusive. He helps the sisters and their backing band achieve cohesiveness across the whole of a record that will appeal to both folk and pop fans. There’s much promise here. “Teeth White” offers another high point, an “I shaved my legs for this?” anthem of dissatisfaction with meager options that finds Emily declaring “I’m not gonna break my back / Work until my bones crack / If I’m the only one not having fun.” The “Whoo!” that follows is one that should be shouted late and loud in every bar and pub smart enough to stock this one in the jukebox.