The British indie-folk trio of sisters The Staves (Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor) follow-up 2017’s The Way Is Read – an adventurous collaboration with chamber ensemble Music – with Good Woman, their first self-penned release in six years. Good Woman takes heavy inspiration from the death of their mother, failed relationships, and the birth of eldest sister Emily’s first child, with all factoring into the concept of what it means to be a “good woman.” The Staves last album If I Was was produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and this time around they enlisted John Congleton (The Decemberists, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten) who helped flush out a collection of intelligent tracks that explore life, love, and womanhood on their own terms. Album highlights include: the sparse, piano-based “Waiting on Me to Change”; the jittery “Best Friend”; the foreboding “Careful, Kid”; the cozy folksy “Nothing’s Gonna Happen”; the numbing stripped-back track “Paralysed”; the cheeky heartbreaker “Failure”; and rather than shying away from the challenges life throws at them, the sister’s embrace these changes in their own time as they proclaim on the closing track, “I’ll change when I want to.” The Staves’ Good Woman is an excellent addition to their discography and a melancholy yet satisfying listen. – Written by JFelton
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