The Stanford Family Band’s music is steeped in the 1960s.
This is an unexpected treat.
Brighton four-piece The Stanford Family Band unveil their debut EP For Your Listening Pleasure just in time for the changing of the season.
Sounding unlike anything else in alternative music right now, the tracks sound charmingly out of their time.
While other acts claim to be influenced by the great acts of the 1960s (or at least used to), The Stanford Family Band’s music is steeped in the decade.
Most prominent are the lush, Beach Boys-esque harmonies around Elliot Stanford’s lead vocals, including on opener Your Chair where they are front and centre.
The track conjures up evocative images of the group stood together accompanied only by a battered old piano before the full band kicks in. Ever-so-slightly psychedelic, it’s a warm welcome to their world.
The jangly Make My Day follows, with dry and enticing percussion culminating in a guitar outro to make George Harrison proud. The gentle stomp and garage-rock guitar on Sweep The Floor flips the overall mood from pleasant to righteous, as Stanford conveys the frustration of working in a menial job.
Meanwhile, lead single Love Me A bit is endearingly old-fashioned and lovelorn but devastatingly effective in its simplicity.
Nothing Like Something is a swinging ditty and, closing proceedings, On My Holiday chugs along purposefully, jauntily looking forwards to time away from the grind.
Memorably melodic and instantly uplifting, The Stanford Family Band have more than just a holiday to look forward to. As soul-cleansing as sunshine after a hard winter.
