Steve Gilmore Reviews: Stinkfish - Everyone

Hear The Track Here

Artist: Stinkfish
Title: Everyone

When you have an Influenced By... list that names almost the movers and shakers of rock and pop music (including one of my all time favourites Steve Miller), you've either got to have a flaming cheek, or musical chops the size of Gibraltar. Stinkfish appears to be a one man band from not-so-sunny Fairbanks, Alaska working in the acoustic rock (sounds weird I know) genre, so it is something that I would probably like given that I love both acoustic sounds and rock. Stinkfish states on the tracks blurb that this is not a final mix, so I'll try and bear that in mind while I tear him to peices...

Joking!! Joking!!!

For me the highspot of the Steve Miller Band's career was the Sailor album and the beginning of this track instantly put me in mind of that album's first track, Song For Our Ancestors. It soon became apparent that Everyone is a very different thing but nonetheless the inference/influence is definitely there. Everyone is certainly influenced by the early 1970's acoustic rock movement vocally and instrumentally. There's also a roughness about the mix that I probably would have picked up on, if I didn't already know this wasn't a final mix. It doesn't detract from the song's quality overly much, but personally I would have liked to hear the final thing because it IS a track that I found myself liking a lot.

Although the base of the track is acoustic, there is a lot more going on than that, including some well used strings and a Jethro Tull flute line that - to my ears anyway - is a little overused. I would suggest that in the final mix stage that the vocals are worked on in terms of sound level and overall tone because this is a classic rock voice that kinda demands a classic rock treatment. So, overall, I really liked this track but I have to say I would because the genre appeals to me more than most. Maybe someone who was a bit more of an electronica head wouldn't really like it, but more fool them I say. Everyone promioses to be an excellent tarck once completed and I for one would want to hear that final mix. More to the point, it's also an above average song with hooks that work in the old fashioned way; my only real complaint about it is that I would like to see the lyrics uploaded along with the final version.

Recommended.