Dead & Born & Grown - The Staves
Dead & Born & Grown Image
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

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  • Summary: The debut full-length release for the folk-rock sisters Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor was produced by the father-and-son team of Glyn and Ethan Johns.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. The Independent (UK)
    Nov 19, 2012
    100
    The Staves are like a distillation of all that's best about the folk heritages of England and America.
  2. Uncut
    Nov 19, 2012
    80
    The real ace up their sleeves is their exquisite harmonies. [Dec 2012, p.77]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. All Music Guide
    Jan 7, 2013
    80
    A relatively calm, collected, and breezy set of 21st century folk songs that prefers subtlety over novelty.
  4. The Guardian
    Nov 19, 2012
    60
    Whether the sisters' gossamer voices are woven together or flutter alone, what you hear is a bloodless, polite prettiness.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. louistn2010
    8
    In a landscape of faux Estuary-English nu-Folk cretins, it is a sight for sore eyes to finally see the Staves, three sisters from Watford working with proper country/folk music.

    Their greatest asset is their natural harmony they sing as one intertwined siren; a sound so mellifluous it's like having organic melted marshmallow poured over you. Or like being battered with a silk pillow, as downy as the first snow of winter or the first feathers of a dove chick… I'm getting all folksy and rambling but their voices mix with the music perfectly and they judge the tone stunningly staying far from saccharine ukuleles and wispy, girly lyrics that make you want to pour a tub of Bovril down your throat.

    This is an album that is most definitely a debut. When you first hear I Speak Because I Can by Laura Marling, you imagine her first album to sound like this (if that makes sense). The three sisters blend harmony with wintry melody and create a pure and charismatic sound that resinates through every song. Lyrically they're pretty awesome too their sense of rhyme and metaphor stands out particularly in Snow as they sing "You are but a guest in my heart/ But soon you must depart;/ You're a catherine wheel/ spinning its last" and later "In the trappings of the silent snow/ That fell over night/ And won't let me go." Poetic S***

    The title track, Dead & Born & Grown, is a simple and haunting tune a sound that runs through the core of this album like a vein of glittering quartz; nothing overly pretentious but beautiful nonetheless. Winter Trees offers a cold tale of regret, the heart-twisting lyrics "But you didn't understand/ That my heart was in your hands/ You were so blind" Nothing spectacular, but sung with enough passion to make a Dorset farmer weep.    … Expand

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