Stavesacre -- MCMXCV

8/10

After Stavesacre's 2002 adventure on Nitro Records landed with a thud, the band laid low for a while before releasing the Bull Takes Fighter EP in 2004 and the 2006 full-length How to Live With a Curse, then disappeared from the face of the Earth. For whatever reason, I didn't pick up either of those releases, but I won't say that I never thought of Stavesacre again. Anytime I hit a rough patch, I threw on 1999's Speakeasy and felt warmth and reassurance. What a great album! I found myself throwing on Collective a good bit, as well. Perhaps those warm feelings bolstered my enthusiasm for the band's 2015 crowdfunding campaign for a comeback album because I supported it, and thankfully, it was fully funded.  Fast-forward to late 2019, and the band are still trying to ship out some of those crowdfunding rewards. Thankfully, though, they e-mailed supporters the new album, titled MCMXCV, in late summer of 2017, and I downloaded away.
Just a couple of minutes into MCMXCV, Stavesacre's signature rock sound, coupled with Mark Salomon's signature vocals evoked, at least from me, a "I'm so glad Stavesacre's back." True opener "The Dead Rejoice" has a huge chorus, and one of those wonderful, slowed down, mystical sounding Stavesacre bridges that builds right back to the huge chorus. This is followed by "The Tower," which does an excellent job of conjuring Stavesacre's darker, more bass-driven sound. To start, that's two five-minute epics that showcase the opposing awesome facets of Stavesacre's sound! Will this be the greatest Stavesacre album yet?
Short answer, no, but it's still great to have them back. Tracks four and five are quick-hitters that wouldn't feel out of place on the self-titled album. "Sleepyhead" is a slowed down, if lightweight fun rocker, with the band just sounding great together again. "Mr. Larkspur" is a dark, weird track that showcases the fact that Dirk Lemmenes bass hasn't been getting rusty over the last decade. "Mr Larkspur" is fine, but it becomes clear at this point that MCMXCV is "very good" and not "classic." The album just don't have a great flow, despite the songs' quality. Then again, after a decade off, the band could have made fools of themselves...they absolutely never do here. It's tough to pick any moment of MCMXCV that's anything less than very good. These guys have still got it.
And that "it" includes balls because track 10 is a cover of Sia's "Breathe Me," as in that song that backed one of the most powerful, saddest closing montages in television history (for Six Feet Under's "Everyone's Waiting"), a track Stavesacre not only does justice to, but makes their own.
MCMXCV also features a great closing pair (of songs, not balls), with the wistful "Moonstone" and the victorious "Hymn." I know that nothing has come easy to Stavesacre, and that the process of crowdfunding this album went about as Stavesacre as possible, but if they want to make 20 more albums like this, I'll back every campaign.


2017 Self-released
1. Intro 0:43
2. The Dead Rejoice 5:12
3. The Tower 4:56
4. Accelerating Into Brake Lights 3:21
5. One Hand Clapping 3:41
6. Sleepyhead 4:09
7. Mr. Larkspur 5:03
8. On Being A Human 4:24
9. Sideways 4:00
10. Breathe Me 4:34
11. Moonstone 6:37
12. Hymn 5:57