Lady of the Sunshine - Smoking Gun - Album Review

01. Silver Revolver
02. Home Sweet Home
03. White Rose parade
04. Jack Nimble
05. Big Jet Plane
06. Smoking Gun
07. Daisychain
08. The Wolf
09. Anna
10. Kings Black Magic
11. Dead Mans Train
12. Lady Sunshine
Rating: ****
Ever since hearing the first single"White Rose Parade" played on JJJ I have been anticipating the new album by Lady of the Sunshine, Angus Stone's side project . Smoking Gun is a more eclectic album than previous releases by Angus and Julia Stone with his sister. The album is great on it's louder moments when he swaps the acoustic guitar for an electric on "Smoking Gun" and lead single "White Rose Parade" . "Kings Black Magic" starts nice and gentle with an acoustic guitar strumming over soft vocals but then morphs into a thumping chorus which provides one of the albums highlights. "Big Jet Plane" is one catchier songs on the album featuring a chorus that has been stuck in my head many times, same goes with opening track "Silver Revolver". The slower acoustic numbers highlight Stone's songwriting talents, particularly on "The Wolf", "Daisychain" and "Anna". "Jack Nimble"and "Lady Sunshine" show off Stone's impressive vocal range and are standout tracks. Hopefully this will not be a one-off project for Stone but there have been no live dates announced as yet. A fantastic debut showing a new side to a very talented musician.

Lady of the Sunshine - Smoking Gun

1. Silver Revolver
2. Home Sweet Home
3. White Rose parade
4. Jack Nimble
5. Big Jet Plane
6. Smoking Gun
7. Daisychain
8. The Wolf
9. Anna
10. Kings Black Magic
11. Dead Mans Train
12. Lady Sunshine

Lady of the Sunshine is a new project by Angus Stone, who's main gig is fronting the band Angus and Julia Stone with his equally talented sister. The first taste of the album, "White Rose Parade", features a heavier sound than I was expecting from the usually laid back singer songwriter and it is one of the best songs of the year so far. The album will be released on 3rd April 2009 and if "White Rose Parade" is any indication it should be a great album. Here is a statement by the man himself describing the new project:

"Hey..

I wanted to introduce you to ‘Lady Of The Sunshine’, a project I have been working on in the lab and the result is a new album ‘Smoking Gun’…

I’ve been skipping off in between tours for about a year now to shake my head of these songs.
Every emotion in my head had its own voice and this album is what became of them.

Last year the old timer gave me his old telecaster which shot me a chance to move into a heavier sound & gave me the stones to get a bit more fired up. I tripped up to North QLD to record with ‘Finn’ (Govinda Doyle) who plays drums and bass on the record. We layed down the tracks in about 6 weeks throughout 2008, recording in an old water tank Finn had fixed up. Finn’s wife would cook supper for us and her new born baby whilst we worked till the young hours of dawn.

I guess the idea of this album was that there would be no idea of how it would come together as a whole. I wanted these songs to have their own emotions & create their own style. I enjoyed how the songs took on their own ride, most from the simplest of ideas.

I wanted to work on the artwork as we did the music. I was throwing ideas back n fourth with Caroline Pedler who did all the original canvas paintings for the album booklet and a little drawing of mine for Daisychain.

So… ‘Lady Of the Sunshine’…
Peace.. Angus Stone"

Go to their My Space page for more information
http://www.myspace.com/ladyofthesunshine

Here's a clip for the new song featuring some great surf footage and a couple of classics from Angus and Julia Stone.