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Young fellow Austin Stahl is the songwriting force behind Baltimore-based band Private Eleanor. Barely into his mid-20s, Stahl has released 3 albums under the name (plus demos and singles), and this is the first release of studio recordings with a full band. The songs are mostly slow, subdued indie-folk-pop, a bit reminiscent of Ida, but without the simmering, drawn-out intensity and electric Crazy Horse-style eruptions. There's a vein of 70s AM-radio gold going through some of the songs as well, a bit like the recent work of Archer Prewitt (or, I suppose, um, actual 70s bands), thanks to some retro instrumentation like Rhodes piano and organ. "Estimated Distance" is a genetic cousin to Big Star's "Thirteen," and has some nice vocal harmonies. "Flowers Might Die" has some interesting production touches like tinny vocals and strange staticky sounds which remind me of The Transmissionary Six. For me the most memorable tracks are the faster ones: "Everything You'd Heard About," which ups the tension along with the tempo, and the poppy closing track "Forever's Not a Word I Use." The weak link here, as far as I'm concerned, is Stahl's singing. His youthful, plaintive vocals are fine in and of themselves, but in the context of the songwriting, which is quite mature, it feels like the quality of his voice just needs to catch up, and acquire more weight than whine, to be up to the task of properly representing the songs. (mike.02.06)
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