Wednesday 10 February 2010

Stornoway - I Saw You Blink

Since we first introduced Stornoway last May (here), we have grown ever more in love with the Oxford bands beautiful homespun unaffected folk pop. If good music is to be judged by the way it makes you feel and nothing else, then Stornoway would score ten out of ten. There’s something about their songs that makes the heart quiver, shot with one of the arrows of Cupid. Stornoway combine a sense of honesty, nature and dreamy realism with the tunes they write. This is why we named them as one of our Ones to Watch for 2010 and voted for them on the BBC Sound of 2010 poll. It really is rather wonderful.

On March 22nd Stornoway will release their new single I Saw You Blink. It’s another piece of pure untainted loveliness - the stuff of which is slowly growing the band a devoted fan base. It’s the simplicity of the groups melodies and romantic turns of phrase such as “I caught the sun on my way home, when I got lost in thinking,” and “I saw you blink and I missed your eyes, your blue eyes,” that is so very special. Following Zorbing and Unfaithful this makes it a hat-trick of cracking singles from the band, and from what we have heard, there's more to come yet.

Here's a video for I Saw You Blink, with the band playing live unplugged. We think more bands should introduce their videos like Stornoway do in this one.

Stornoway start out on a national tour this week, having now finally signed a record deal. Come April the tour will see the them finally playing a show in the Outer Hebridean town after which they were named. Although that one is a little too far for us to travel, keep an eye out for a write up of one of the bands shows here very soon and no doubt more Stornoway blogs as the year goes on. Our favourite newly signed band, for sure.

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