Customer Reviews

Orange Album

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stefy made their splash with the song "Chelsea", both featured in the movie John Tucker Must Die and in clubs across America with a bevy of hot remixes. Their debut effort, "The Orange Album", continues in the trend of 80's synth-pop in the vein of The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams".
Singer Stefy Rae has a strong voice (a nice contrast to a lot of the breathy female vocalists who have been popping up everywhere) and she showcases it well across the 11-track album.
The tracks are typical pop fare, dealing with love, loss, and acceptance. "Orange County" is about a young couple that deal with pregnancy and the real world a little too early.
Luckily if you like grrl rock (like Le Tigre) or mainstream pop (like Pink) this album should do wonders for you. It may not be the best thing to be pressed onto metal and plastic, but it is definitely a cut above the rest.

I just saw this band in concert last night and they put on an awesome show. The lead singer, Stefy, is gorgeous and has this edge to her that just screams sex appeal. The CD is good too...the songs are catchy and they cover the range of slow to fast. I would recommend this to anyone...give it a listen.

Admittedly, this is not the most original sounding album of all time. And, yes, the lyrics to "Orange County" are far from Baudelaire. But this is a great little album. If you liked early Sex-era Berlin, you will love this album. Stefy sounds so much like Teri Nunn (Berlin) it is spooky. At points the album sounds a little like other 80's acts Missing Persons and Expose, or recent Scanners. I agree with other reviewers that the album is most solid at the beginning, but most of the songs are at least catchy, and I also really like "Orange Crush." Give it a listen.

i dont know what it is, but i decided to buy this record the day it came out and the songs play through really well. if you dont like it at firsts, it grows on you very fast. call it stefy guilty pleasure.

I was recommended that I buy this album by a friend of mine. I was kinda wary even though I liked Stefy's first single "Chelsea." I wasn't sure if I would like it at all. But finally I caved and got the CD.

And I love it! It's a great little album, very No Doubt like with some great electronic pop tracks. The whole album is quite similar to "Chelsea" but they're not complete clones.

Stefy are made up of three guys and a girl. Stefy Rae provides the gorgeous vocals, Jason Gaviati is the keyboardist, Sean Mayer plays the guitar and Andreas Brobjer is the band's drummer. Together they make up a very good band who have made a very good album. Stefy Rae is the voice and frontwoman of the band, my goodness she is beautiful and has an amazing voice.

The album opens with "Chelsea" which was Stefy's debut single. Most people should know this electronic pop track as it was quite big in the charts. About an evil woman named Chelsea who tries to steal Stefy Rae's boyfriend, in the video Stefy Rae puts her boyfriend on trial for cheating on her. The song is very catchy, and a short little ditty at only 2:55. One of the album's best tracks.

Track 2 is "Hey School Boy" - another album higlight. This song is EXTREMELY catchy with great backing music teamed with Stefy Rae's vocals. The song is about Stefy Rae's relationship with a younger man, who is actually at school. Very, very addictive. The next track is "Love You To Death" - another more electronic song, this is less pop sounding then the previous two tracks. But it's still good, the chorus is amazing. Stefy Rae's vocals are a bit understated but that doesn't take away from the song that much.

Next up is "Orange County" - this is what I consider to be the album's outstanding track and my personal favourite on the CD. The first slower song we've heard from Stefy so far, this is absolutely gorgeous. Stefy Rae's vocals are crystal clear and absolutely amazing, her voice is so sweet on this track. This song has a meaning behind it too, about a teenage couple who fall in love, then the girl finds out she's pregnant and their lives change in an instant. They have to give up all the things they think they need (as the chorus goes "We still got our MTV, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani, Tivo for my sweet sixteen, prepaid AT&T, the things we think that we need") to grow up fast. An absolute gem of a track, this is beautiful. A definite listen-to.

Next up is "Where Are The Boys." Compared to the last track, this song cant't live up, but it's still good. This one is similar to "Love You To Death" I think, it has a similar beat and vocals from Stefy Rae. But this track has more of a dancey beat then the latter track. "Cover Up" follows it, another electronic/dance track. I think this one is better then "Where Are The Boys" it has better lyrics and is more catchy. I like the way Stefy Rae sings "no more you" in the chorus. "Orange Crush" is next, the second song so far with 'orange' in the title. Unlike "County" this track is upbeat, and is another shorter one at 2:53. This song is really good, it's catchy and cute. I'm not sure what the song is actually about, but it's great.

Track 8 is "Lucky Girl." Now I think Stefy do some great ballads, as this is another full-blown slow track. It's actually slower then "Orange County" and Stefy Rae's vocals are absolutely amazing. This song is driven by a piano and is quite catchy for a ballad I think. It seems boring at first but let it get going and you'll like it I guarantee. The song has good lyrics too about a bad relationship. The song goes more orchestral about 2 minutes in. This is another favourite of mine.

"You And Me Against The World" follows, and it's upbeat, a vast contrast from the last song. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good. It's a bit more rocky and poppy then the other fast songs on this CD. This isn't a favourite of mine. "Pretty Little Nightmare" is next, and this picks up the pace a bit. This song is very unique with quirky lyrics ("I am an orange gum drop stuck in your mouth" - the opening line of the song) and is quite catchy. I like this one. "Nothing Really" is the closer of the album, and is midtempo. It has cool music but is not really a standout, they could have done a better song to close the CD with.

My favourite songs on the CD are "Orange County" "Lucky Girl" "Chelsea" "Hey School Boy" "Pretty Little Nightmare" and "Love You To Death."

I gave the CD 4 stars because some of the songs do sound similar after a couple of listens. But some of the songs (the two ballads especially) stand out so much, it's hard to ignore.

Stefy are talented and have a great album. I really wish we'd hear more from them. 4 stars.

Stefy are a good itunes band. With an album where barely half of the songs are worth your time, it's a better idea just to download the highlights. The Orange Album kicks off well, with the opening trifecta of standout (and first single) Chelsea, Hey School Boy (which all but borrows the glorious "way-oh" chants from the Bangle's Walk Like An Egyptian) and the melodramatic synth dirge Love You To Death. From there, things get less interesting.

Stefy have obviously been listening to the best parts of Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B., and this is evidenced by the upbeat, party-driven songs (Cover Up, Orange Crush), but too often the band loses any sense of identity or, more importantly, hooky songwriting. The last four tracks add up to fifteen minutes of blah, but worst of all is Orange County, where they try to get all serious (aka: mopey) on us. The story-song chronicles the plight of a young couple (with unplanned child) trying to make it in the OC. The chorus adds up to nothing more than a laundry list of pop culture ("We still got our MTV, Jay-z and Gwen Stefani, Tivo for my sweet sixteen, and prepaid AT&T") and, like many bad songs before it, seems to be written with the sole intent of teaching the listener something. It's nothing that we haven't heard a hundred times before, and it's not unique enough to prove memorable. Ditto for the majority of the album.

Key Tracks: Chelsea, Love You To Death, Hey School Boy

When I heard the first few seconds of "Chelsea", I thought the band had sampled "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics. But, as the song played, I realised that it was just coincidental keyboard playing. That in itself made me love the band!

As someone obsessed with music, I get utterly disgusted when I hear songs being sampled or just outright remade. I feel it shows no real talent. So, when I listen to a new artist and they don't have samples or remakes on their album, then I tend to already like them better than most.

But that's not the only reason to like Stefy. There is also their strong lyrical and melodic abilities that seemed to have time travelled from the Eighties to the present, bringing along all those good feelings that come with listening to infectious, intelligent synthpop. Stefy is like Blondie meets Berlin. Synth beats and attitude combined together perfectly!

At first when I heard "Chelsea" by Stefy, I was confused. They sounded just like No Doubt (one of my favorite bands!!), and their name sounded a bit too similar to Gwen STEFani. But whatever. A few songs into this awesome cd and you just won't care. The songs are catchy and cute, and sure, the lyrics are pretty generic and there's nothing innovative here, but who cares????? I know I don't!!! The Orange Album doesn't take itself too seriously and will put you in a great mood. I highly recommend it to all fans of pop/electronic music, any age (I'm 18, I just didn't want to make an account). My favorite songs are "Hey School Boy", "Love You To Death" and "Where Are The Boys". If you're thinking of buying this cd, just do it!!!

Sorry, but after their few tracks that got good play and some marginal press in late '06, they seem to be what they sounded like on a third spin: clones. Synth and a sound that is like bad Blondie dipped into No Doubt wax. file it next to your Divinyls CD as a reminder not to buy a CD after you were drunk at a party.

Perhaps I'll eat these words, but... nah...

A friend of mine really likes this new band out of Orange County and so I heard the first single "Chelsea" in its electronic rock glory and decided I'd hunt down a cheap copy of it. So I did and lo and behold it came in less than 2 days - Stefy is a band but Stefy is also Stefy Rae the lead singer of this little outfit. Utilizing her inflections like Gwen Stefani, I have a feeling that ghost will follow this girl everywhere she goes. The album as a whole is fairly catchy and sticks with you after that last chord is played, the problem is it's not all that wonderful to have stuck with you. The lead single is great, then we get "Hey School Boy" a song I also like but try as much as I can to wrap myself around "Orange County" I'm just having trouble. Part ballad part electronic opus it's a story song of privileged boy and girl meeting, falling in love, losing everything when she gets pregnant, well not exactly everything for the chorus tells us - we've still got our MTV, JayZ and Gwen Stefani/ Tivo for my sweet 16...." You get it. At one moment I think it's funny and then the next I'm a little ticked off for it seems I'm an areaist and I can't stand the OC. The minute I cross that border it's like the life is sucked right out of me. It's very strange and this girl is all about the OC - there's "Orange Crush", the aforementioned song, and the color orange pops up over and over again. I think it's supposed to be cute but I'm just not digging it. I think the problem is with the lyrics because the music is all really good and infectious but this 20 year old just hasn't suffered or lived enough to tell me anything I could care about. The band's influences seem to be Blondie and Gwen and you all know that Debbie and her boys can wrap a lyric around a high-speed chase and make it the most exciting thing in the world. Even Gwen in her OC glory had been around the block a bit and was able to create love stories with epic and sometimes disgusting results - "Bathwater" and "Don't Speak" are practically ingenious compared to this. The Sounds seem to me to have the same problem, excellent hooks but the lyric writing is lackluster and I'm big on lyrics and like I said I want to like it, I really do. and there are some pretty cool moments, I really love the chorus on "Lucky Girl" though I'm not clear on the rest of the song. But rest assured, I'm gonna keep listening to Stefy until I hear what's there. Until then, I have to apologize not to Stefy but to my pal, for not liking it as much as I wanted to and as much as I'm sure he wanted me to.