Brightest Young Things

We haven't been shy with our love for Baltimore's much missed Private Eleanor, so it was with great excitement that we learned of frontman Austin Stahl's new solo record. He has kept busy with his design work and keeping time behind the kit for Small Sur, but the songwriting itch never left him. It is amazing to listen to his growth as a songwriter and musician when you hear the early bedroom recordings that led to the formation of Private Eleanor and then the current work produced using only an 8-track Tascam cassette recorder.

Picturing him slumped over the obsolete machine with his thin arms and tiny t-shirt, wiping the sweat from his white boy fro and over-sized glasses makes me smile.

These songs might have a certain hushed quality akin to a one man band in the back room (always a good thing in my book) but they are not lacking in arrangement power or harmonies and melodies. It is telling that the songs alternate being guitar driven or floating on bass and keyboards. His simple percussion and organ lines prove to be perfect color in many instances where he would have leaned on his six strings previously. Of course he usually slips in a nice little guitar hook at some point because he can.

These songs kept Austin company long enough and he knew that he wanted to put them out, but didn't want to go through the usual record release - so he took the path that seemed the quickest - he gave them away.

Not only that, but he also included a bonus disc of songs written in the year he was born: 1982. In a lot of ways the covers are even more telling of his mature performances in that they all feel like Austin's songs as he fully twists them into his own guise.

Need I say more? I think not. It even comes with printable packaging.

Check it at http://www.austinstahl.net/