Still Corners and the beautiful illusory Polaroid wash of "The Dream" (Official Video)

 

"We are on a night train / Heading to the east end / Waiting for the time / Looking for a sign..."

The illusory Polaroid washed patina of "The Dream" by Anglo-American duo Still Corners feels like a rare sonic solar eclipse. Tessa Murray and Greg Hughes formed the duo / band after a chance meeting at a London train stop in 2009, so the riding the rails diorama of "The Dream" seems particularly and artfully appropriate. The aesthetic here, at least to me, feels exquisitely 70's-esque back when Alan Parsons and Ken Caillat were the record producers of note and like an amalgam of Al Stewart, Strawbs, Fleetwood Mac, Lulu and Petula Clark (in my scattered brain) there is a deeply rich sound here. Eschewing from the shoegazey vox of today, Murray's absolutely beautiful vocal countenance is perfectly upfront and, equally, Hughes guitar work strays away from heavy distortions and, instead, plays pretty cleanly, with pearly tube amp tones resulting in a stunning Western pop noir sound. AND whether it is recorded digitally or not, the mix / eq feels richly dynamic and less compressed like old school albums from decades ago.  

I DIG THIS!

LINER NOTES:

 [‘The Dream’ is the second single announced off the eagerly awaited sixth album Dream Talk, available on 5th April 2024 via their own record label, Wrecking Light Records.

‘The Dream’ is Still Corners at their most seductive and romantic. This mysterious tale centres around a quote from Shakespeare’s illustrious A Midsummer’s Night Dream: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream”.]

We're in a dream

We're in a dream
And you know all's not
What it seems
We're in a dream
We're in a dream
And maybe it's a
Dream within a dream

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4zKYrXs8iN4AeHmO8ZxNqp

https://www.instagram.com/stillcorners/

https://www.facebook.com/stillcorners/


Still Corners is the musical project of Tessa Murray and Greg Hughes. The group formed shortly after Murray met Hughes by chance at a London train stop in 2009. For over a decade, the band has delivered a steady stream of music that is at once reflective, searching and romantic. Sub Pop quickly signed the band after their first few singles and went on to release their debut album Creatures of an Hour in 2011 and followed that with Strange Pleasures in 2013. Shortly thereafter the band started their own record label Wrecking Light Records and have gone on to release albums Dead Blue in 2016, Slow Air in 2018 and The Last Exit in 2021 to critical acclaim. Still Corners have continued to release singles (Heavy Days, Far Rider) and tour across the US and Europe. In 2024, the band's sixth studio album, Dream Talk, will be released. Beautifully arranged, elegant and wistful, Dream Talk is a set of ten carefully crafted classic songs. From the autumnal opener "Today is the Day" to the hot summer night finale of "Turquoise Moon", Still Corners have created a sound that is focused, stylish and seductive.

Still Corners, Tessa Murray and Greg Hughes, indie rock, dream pop, pop noir, "The Dream" (Official Video), London, evocative sounds, artful dreamy tones, cleanly drawn, emotionally wrought,