The Storys - 'The Storys'

The Storys' self titled debut album evokes the expansive vistas of the Western United States rather than their native South Wales. Chock full of soft rock ballads and country tinged guitar anthems the album is the sort thing you'd expect to hear on American commercial radio as you head down the Interstate towards a blood red sunset. With four singer songwriters sharing writing and lead vocal duties there is a good variety of styles but unfortunately the schmaltzy production leaves a large portion of the album sounding bland and a little trite. There are a couple of excellent ditties but they took so long to convince me of their worth that I was getting pretty tired of the rest of the record, with that long straight Interstate and the sun in my eyes. [Dave Reid]