Customer Reviews

Book Like This

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Best thing to come out of Australia EVER. Wasted is excellent and the album is entirely coherent and beautiful, one that you can listen to all the way through and then begin again. Angus and Julia Stone are a great duo. They were so excellent live that I immediately bought the album and I'm very happy with it.

Angus (22yrs) & Julia Stone (24yrs) (2008) are a multi-talented, unassuming, modest, and unpretentious brother & sister duo from Newport on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. Angus plays guitar & mouth organ, while Julia can turn her hands to trumpet, guitar, violin & the piano. They come from a very musical family & began to collaborate on their musical endeavours in early 2006. Prior to that, both had performed as solo artists, principally at open mike nights, but with each using the other as a backing partner. In terms of composing material, they write on their own, then work together on structure and harmonies. Both Angus and Julia have their own very distinctive vocal styles.

Their 1st EP `Chocolates and Cigarettes' (6 track containing `Paper Aeroplane'), was released in 2006 & their 2nd, `Heart Full Of Wine' (also 6 tracks) in 2007. Later that year they finally released their brilliant & sonically amazing, debut album 'A Book Like This'.

In 2006, Angus and Julia along with their permanent drummer (& official photographer) Mitchell Connelly, played several festivals across Australia and later toured the UK to promote the release of their 1st EP, which sold 35,000 copies. Mitchell's brother, who works under the name IOSHVA, maintains their fab website and produces their artwork. The band also directs their own videos along with their friends at Nippard Productions. The introduction of a permanent Bass player e.g Clay McDonald, now completes the band.

Whilst in the UK in the latter part of 2007, they were invited into Chris Potter's studio (The Verve/Richard Ashcroft) to record. In the meantime, Fran Healy from UK band Travis heard their debut EP and also invited them to his house to record. The resulting EP, `Heart Full Of Wine', was released in February 2007. With a producer to guide them, Angus & Julia sat on Fran's lounge-room floor, continuing to record new material, (using vintage guitars and microphones) which would form the basis of the new album "A Book Like This". The remainder of the songs for the album would later be recorded in their mother's lounge room back in Newport with producer and friend, Ian Pritchett. Julia also provided backing vocals for the track "Battleships" on Travis's 2007 album, The Boy with No Name.

When initially released `A Book Like This' was presented in a magnificent `Limited Edition' hard cover, 10 page booklet package. Containing both the new CD & an accompanying DVD with 9 video clips (all excepting `The Beast' were songs from their previous EP's). This was also released in the U.K. It has now become very, very hard to find, but is definitely well worth the hunt & the price. There was also an accompanying EP called `The Beast' which along with the title track from the album, also contained 3 new tracks (Purple Skivvy, I'll Wait & Little Bird) on the Australian release, while the U.K release boasted an additional 2 tracks ("Mother Hubbards Shoe" & "Choking").

I personally can't get enough of all of their fabulous, fabulous music, but being that we're all different (bless us), just have a listen to the first 5 tracks from the album & that'll make your mind up one way or the other. Other great songs from their EP's include, `Paper Aeroplane', `Babylon', `Mango Tree', `All Of Me', `What You Wanted', `Fooled Myself' ... but really all their EP's are must haves. They have also recently (Nov 2008) released another Limited Edition (4 track) EP titled `Hollywood' which contains 3 new tracks e.g. "All The Colours" (Angus' reworking of Julia's 'Wasted'), "Lonely Hands" (Julia's reworking of Angus' `Just A Boy') & an acoustic track by Angus called "Johnny and June". Lastly there is one more absolutely brilliant "Must Have" track by Angus doing his accoustic version of `River' by Joni Mitchell. It can be found on a various artists compilation called "No Man's Woman: A Tribute To Women In Voice (Disc 1)" from 2007.

Check out their website at [...]

Great lyrics, the songs have real content and are worth many listenings. Nice instrumentals and fine orchestration. Great vocals with some hilarious Australian accents (to a New Yorkah anyway). The Sundays meet Tuck and Patti? Maybe not, but you get the idea. I heard a track first on [...] (they are a great source to hear new tunes) and had to get it. I was not disappointed, all the tracks are quite good, and I will listen to this a dozen times end-to-end before it gets into the mix.
It came pretty quickly and in perfect condition all the way from Oz.