The Staves: Dead & Born & Grown – review

# Folk music

# Pop and rock

# The Staves

(Atlantic)

To steal a phrase from Wisely & Slow, the opening track on the Staves' debut album: tender women, why is it you whisper when you really need to yell? It's clear from their lyrics that these three sisters from Watford aren't wilting wallflowers: their songs unflinchingly demonstrate the difficulty of reconciling love with a desire for autonomy. "I can't be married," youngest sister Camilla tells one man on In the Long Run, while on Snow, eldest sister Emily dismisses another as "a little child", assuring him that: "I will never belong to anyone." Yet something gets lost in the translation to harmony: whether the sisters' gossamer voices are woven together or flutter alone, what you hear is a bloodless, polite prettiness. It doesn't help that the musical backing is so insipid: wisps of gentle guitar that too rarely surprise, as with the skewed chords of Wisely & Slow or the icy glint of Tongue Behind My Teeth.

Contributor

Maddy Costa

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
The Staves: Dead and Born and Grown - exclusive album stream

One of the most hotly tipped new bands of 2012 have got around to releasing their debut album. Be among the first to listen to it and tell us what you think in the comments

Guardian music

05, Nov, 2012 @4:27 PM

Article image
The Staves: If I Was review – a bolder sound drives subtler words
The Watford sisters’ second album benefits from the production of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, crafting slow waves of emotion

Maddy Costa

19, Mar, 2015 @9:45 PM

Article image
The Staves: Good Woman review
On their third release, the Watford trio’s beautiful songwriting thrums with frustration at powerlessness and passivity

Rachel Aroesti

05, Feb, 2021 @8:30 AM

Article image
The Staves – review

The Stavely-Taylor sisters are far more fun and spunky on stage than their chaste, prim folk-rolk might suggest, writes Ian Gittins

Ian Gittins

20, Nov, 2012 @5:50 PM

Article image
The Staves talk to Michael Hann – video

Our latest tip is the Staves, a band of three sisters who have been singing together all their lives. Guardian and Observer critics are predicting great things for the group in 2012, and here Michael Hann talks to them about growing up, their parents' influence and working with producers Glyn and Ethan Johns

Michael Hann, Shehani Fernando and Andy Gallagher

03, Jan, 2012 @9:00 AM

Article image
The Staves: 'We don't live in a log cabin'

With Tom Jones and Bon Iver among their fans, why do Watford sisters the Staves need to convince the owner of their local pub that they deserve a place on her wall of fame, asks Tom Lamont

Tom Lamont

11, Nov, 2012 @12:04 AM

Article image
New band of the day – No 1,144: The Staves

These three Laura Marling-alikes can reduce an audience to awed silence. But that won't stop us from comparing them to Azealia Banks ...

Paul Lester

08, Nov, 2011 @5:02 PM

Article image
The Staves & yMusic: The Way Is Read review – mind the Watford-New York gap
(Nonesuch)

Phil Mongredien

03, Dec, 2017 @8:00 AM

The Staves – review
The ace is the Staves' voices, which mesh together stunningly, the product of singing since their teens, writes Dave Simpson

Dave Simpson

22, Apr, 2012 @3:02 PM

Article image
Midlake: Antiphon – review
The loss of their original frontman has worked in Midlake's favour and given them room to roam, writes Maddy Costa

Maddy Costa

31, Oct, 2013 @9:45 PM