On the radar: Stanley

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 12:48

Track: Flowers

Imagine, if you can, that you'd broken up with your partner. At the time the separation made perfect sense. There'd be no more arguments, no more uncertainty and you'd get back to the carefree life of singledom.

But then, imagine (stay with us on this) that you realised you'd messed up. The light of day had shown that you'd run away from someone you were madly in love with.

Most of us would have walked the obligatory post-breakup road of getting drunk and sending a couple of weird, slightly unhinged, text messages, before ending up in the arms of someone we didn't really want to be with.

But for Stephen Podlesney, the frontman of Aberdonian quintet Stanley, that wasn't going to be good enough, so he wrote Flowers, a song of utter sincerity. As you listen to Podlesney promising to change and begging his lover to "please come home" you understand exactly what she means to him. Even the Littlest Hobo would have settled down.

Sourced from the Under the Radar music blog

The song is testament to five of the most proficient musicians on the Aberdeen scene. Named after comedian Stan Laurel, Stanley couple a love of slapstick comedy with serious ambition. Podlesney claims, with scant regard for modesty, that they have "the intelligence of The Divine Comedy, the creativity of Radiohead circa The Bends and the soaring vocal talents of Scott Walker."

With the mixture of orchestral backing tracks, guitars and vibraphones, the live show would be disastrous if it weren't for the tightness and dedication that comes from a band made up of music teachers and guitar salesmen.

Add the powerful, almost operatic quality of Podlesney's voice and you have something that could very easily tip into a Mike Flower's Pop tribute band. Thankfully, the sincerity of the music ensures it's a sound that's far removed from kitsch.

It seems with every gig Stanley become more original, more willing to let loose and discover their own sound more. With an album nearing completion, you can expect more gigs throughout Scotland soon.