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Stefy Album: Stefy: The Orange Album
Street Date: August 29, 2006
Length: 41:07
Rating: 3
Reviewed by: Kevin
Website: http://www.stefytheband.com

Stefy has a front woman named Stefy Rae who leads us on quite a ride throughout this album. The band got an initial boost with 2 songs on the recent soundtrack for John Tucker Must Die. Their sound is heavily infulanced by No Doubt, and even go so far as to reference Gwen once on the album. More on that later.

1. Chelsea - From the first synth beat, it lets you know what you're in for with this album. This is a great lead single for the album, it has pretty good lyrics about jealousy and guilt. It's mostly a danceable pop track.

2. Hey School Boy - Using synth today can be good when done correctly, but this is just too much of the 80's flashingback. If the lyrics had been wrapped in a different package the song may have been more palatable.

3. Love You To Death - This song gets it right. The lyrics are moving, the music is quite sweet and melodic.

4. Orange County - The song is a narrative about two teenagers in love and the... consequences of life. There is a reference in the song to watching TV with Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani. Placing that in this song I think was a mistake. The song as a whole is quite powerful, but all of a sudden in the chorus (meaning its repeated many times) is a reference to a band Stefy should distance themselves from when they are looking to make their own identity. This song is one of the few on the album that actually is a pretty far cry from No Doubt.

5. Where are the Boys - This is a good uptempo song. Lyrics are a little hard to make out at times but it remains a pretty enjoyable track.

6. Cover Up - This would work perfect on a movie soundtrack. The song has that action pace to it, up until the bridge where it all falls away to a soft interlude before kicking back in.

7. Orange Crush - More new wave. The lyrics fall pretty flat, it banks on the catchy pop hooks.

8. Lucky Girl - This is where you wonder if you're still listening to the same album. This beautiful piano ballad complete with a strings section comes out of no where and will blow you away. A sound very reminiscent of the international piano based singer songwriter Delta Goodrem.

9. You and Me Against the World - This mid/upper tempo track comes along and is one of the better songs on the album. It's not over the top New Wave like some of the other songs, I could see this song being amazing when done live.

10. Pretty Little Nightmare - This is one of those high paced danceable tracks. The hook is a little corny "I'm so pretty, yeah I'm so pretty tonight, pretty little nightmare." Take it for what you will.

11. Nothing Really - This is a slower tempo song, it proves to us one last time there is still a lot of quality to be found in this album.

Overall, if you are a fan of New Wave, you'll eat this album up. Personally I like it much more when Stefy breaks the mold and on songs like "Lucky Girl" & "Nothing Really" and even "You And Me Against The World" to some degree. Using the song "Chelsea" as the lead single I do believe was a good choice because it gives an honest representation of what an average music listener can expect to hear from this album.

For more info, visit: http://www.stefytheband.com

Thank you to Wind-Up Records for making this advance review possible.


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