Kelley Stoltz: Below The Branches : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Kelley Stoltz is a savvy songwriter, but his songs have an almost guileless, unadulterated appeal. In 2001, the San Francisco troubadour recorded, produced, pressed and distributed his teensy, critically acclaimed psych-rock debut, Antique Glow (he also created the album's artwork), and on Below the Branches, Stoltz continues in that DIY vein, playing the majority of the instruments on each track himself. It sounds like he had a lot of fun making this record: The bouncy opening track, "Wave Goodbye," is a summer-camp ditty that recalls "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" -- all strummy guitar and percussive piano, with lyrics ("Pack your worries in a suitcase/Send them off and wave goodbye") that herald the rest of the album's freewheeling Sixties-ish idealism. "Ever Thought of Coming Back" is a Beach Boys homage par excellence -- a song of runaway love replete with a sunshiny pop melody and layered vocal harmonies, cut with just enough bitterness ("Jesus Christ, what you been doing all this time?") to save it from being twee. And though the pedal steel toe-tapper "Birdies Singing" sounds half like a honky-tonk put-on, it's impossibly charming, proof positive that Stoltz can make masterful retro reproductions without taking himself too seriously.