Search - New Radiant Storm King :: The Steady Hand

Solid record from a long-time indie band of principle

John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 09/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This longtime Amherst, Mass. band adds session musicians to some cuts and new members--once again--to the longtime duo who've been at the heart of this indie band since the start of the '90s. Their new record, about five years after Winter's Kill, continues in the same mode as their previous CD: continuing a guitar-driven, tuneful without being sappy, and aggressive without becoming silly.



This album will grow on me; it's a 3.5-3.75 star achievement (I rounded up) ranked alongside their other CDs, a consistent album more than an astonishing one, and at this stage, NRSK continues in the path they have opened up in the 90s. Their music emerges confidently, and lacks either glitz or veneer. The poetic and mature lyrics, printed here along with handsome cover art and liner notes, make the CD itself worth purchasing in the old-fashioned tangible format.



The words, however, may make better reading sometimes on the page than on record as sung. NRSK has always been among long-time college-radio (when that term meant something for rock fans, as in the start of the 90s?) strivers still surviving such as Walkabouts, Eleventh Dream Day, or especially as heard on this CD, Silkworm: respected bands that manage to persevere from the same period that NRSK arrived but without breaking out into the big time. Probably for the better in their instances, for they keep control of their dignity and their sound.



The best song here is a remake of their superb British 2003 single (as heard on the odds-and-ends gathered recently as Leftover Blues, also reviewed by me) Quicksand on the Carpet, although the Sunset Variations has moments almost as memorable. As with any other NRSK record, a couple of songs leap out ahead of the rest. The production wraps the mood into a measured sense of regret and hesitation, and the lyrical concerns mesh well with the melancholy music predominating. A quality effort all around.



But the sound can sound samey on most of any NRSK record. They accompany a feeling you might have of restlessness, and match their words and melodies accordingly. The vocals are unassuming, and even when they rage, they still carry themselves with a prep-school carriage, a mien of sangfroid. They are destined, after so long, to soldier on outside the ranks of their brasher and more calculating peers. Their Pernice Bros related music may be entering a bit more into crossover with the wistful quieter moments on The Steady Hand.



I have all the NRSK albums, and like them, but they alternate between soft and loud, harsh and gentle, pretty predictably by now. The band carries itself into middle age with dignity and without condescending to their audience or the fad of the musical moment outside their own hermetic, intense, cocooned, sonic nest. They may remind you of many other bands in bits, Big Black, REM, Nirvana, Replacements in their sober moments, and a slew of respectable but lesser known musicians that you could make your own pick from over the last twenty-five years. But they manage not to imitate anybody else, and their own sound at its pinnacle can convey well the frustration and loneliness all of us may feel. This is a humble band, and they invite you in to their music rather than forcing it on you or distorting its value."