The Stance - I Left Love Behind a Long Time Ago

Man, I don't want to alarm you, but there is a lot of music available on the Internet right now. Now I don't want to be one of those crotchety dudes that harps on about things being better back in the day (well, I actually am one of those dudes, I just don't want to make it obvious), but with how relatively easy its become to make and distribute music in this day and age, one has to wonder if some of the emphasis on the actual playing of that music has been lost. I mean at one point, the only way perhaps 90% of the bands in the world could get heard was to pile into a tiny club, crank their fuzz-filled amps past the giga-watts let it fly. These days you can cut a 3 song demo in your bedroom and get heard halfway across the world in the same evening.

Luckily there are still plenty of bands like The Stance, who are still putting out albums like their new full-length effort I Left Love Behind A Long Time Ago which is a bit of a gem in my humble. It's eleven, riff-laden, sing-along-inducing rock & roll songs that hearken back to a time when rock & roll was still, you know, rock & roll. The Halifax quartet strut & holler their way through most of the songs - the band joins Mark MacAulay on the hooks with such gusto that it's no wonder that the band's live show is so highly regarded.

But it's pretty clear that the band went to some length to capture the feel of their live sound with this record, as it feels pretty loose and energetic throughout, but without sacrificing quality or little subtleties that help make an album great (are those bongos I hear kicking in halfway through Sweet Tooth? Man, I hope those are bongos). This is the kind of album that grabs you by the scruff of the neck right from the get go, with the stomp of songs like Strung Up, keeps your ADD in check with revival rockers like Grow Up On Drugs, and keeps you warm at night with the piano-led bounce of Young Love.

The February doldrums are still in effect, but I Left Love Behind A Long Time Ago is as sure a cure as I can recommend right now. Go ahead and get your fix from The Stance and the fine folks at Just Friends records.

MP3:: The Stance - Jenny Jitters
MYSPACE::www.myspace.com/stance
GET IT::www.thestance.ca

Labels: Halifax, Just Friends, Review, The Stance