The Stairs

Having listened through the Stairs’ selftitled EP it is clear that the band’s dreams of airplay on some of the big radiostations are actually within reach. Songs like “Little Bird” and “Back From the Sky” are obvious radio-hits, if not exactly in contrast to, then at least a quite different from the rest of the tracks on the EP, which in style and approach are much more experimenting and playful, but also more uneven and groping.

This does by no means make these songs less interesting and The Stairs’ inclination and ability to throw themselves into grand complex rockcompositions could very well happen to be their greatest strength in the long run, if they’re capable of maintaining their listeners with their experiments. This ability is particularly obvious on the track “Song About Something/Nothing”, which brings the listener good and well through its sudden shifts in dynamics and speed, spiced with small wedges of new music, like at 90 seconds into the song, where the quietly built up ballad suddenly is exposed to a solid piece of rock in a delicious cake of modulation-effects.

In spite of all these capers, The Stairs are succesful in their project and leave the listener with the impression of a thorough composition, which in its structure, instrumentation and use of edgy rockpiano is reminiscent of Queen, the unquestioned masters of the rocksymphonic form.

The track “Sitting in the Sun” belongs to the same category as “Song About Something/Nothing”, but in spite of many fine musical ideas it comes out heavier and more fractionated in form. Melody and instrumentation never really work together in a higher unit and in the end it is the instrumental parts and the tight playing of the band that saves the track.

The best track of the release is beyond question “Little Bird” which must be the incarnation of what the band is capable of. Not as experimenting as “Song About Something/Nothing” nor like "Back From The Sky" at the border of simple hitoriented pop-songwriting, but a track which brings together these extremes into a balanced whole. The song is melodically interesting and the arrangement is varied and balanced. The energy-level is high, and wondrously Jesper Vindberg’s vocals succeed in floating above it all with their refreshing power. Everything works and even the somewhat ingenious intro/outro parts work convincingly, though the general sound might profit from a grittier approach.

The build-up in mind, it is hard not to think of Tim Christensen, and Jesper Vindberg’s final phrasing of the word “time” in second line of the first verse seems picked out of the phrasing-catalogue of Tim C. Jesper Vindberg and the other Stairs-boys should not be blamed for this, though, for no matter how clearly inspiration from other artists show up, what The Stairs do is fully their own. it shall be interesting to see whether the new producer-collaboration will be able to bring forward better and more focused productions. The potentials of The Stairs seem far from fully explored. .

From Danish rock-pop web-site "MyMusic" - April 2008

Original review can be read here !

Watch video of Back From the Sky!