Speakeasy

Description

Speakeasy is the third full-length album by the American alternative rock band Stavesacre, released on Tooth & Nail Records in November 1999, as their final studio effort on Tooth & Nail. The band would later re-record “Keep Waiting,” “Gold and Silver” and “Rivers Underneath”, featured on Stavesacre’s compilation Collective.

Speakeasy gained the band its first chart position, debuting at No. 44 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers Chart and No. 35 on the Top Contemporary Christian Chart.

Speakeasy, Stavesacre’s latest album, sounds pretty much identical to everything they’ve done in the past. 9/10ths of the album has that Tool vs. Helmet sound that’s worked for them so well in the past, and there’s a characteristic slow song in the vein of «Burning Clean». Mark Salomon and company tread very little new water here.

The good news is that it still sounds fresh and new. Stavesacre blasts their way through twelve songs, not letting the quality drop for a second. With Salomon spitting out rapid-fire lines like, “I don’t believe this is what God above intended, and I wanted you to know,” and guitarist Ryan Denny crunching out riffs like tomorrow died last week, the band sounds better than ever. Only one of the songs, «St. Eriksplan», drags on for too long, with its repeating chorus bordering on annoying:

No one knows
The words I’ve spoken
The paths I’ve chosen
The promises that have been broken

There’s even a cover of The Cure’s classic «Fascination Street», which manages to maintain the moodiness of the original, while adding a whole new intensity. It’s been interesting to watch Salomon mature as a lyricist since the cliché-filled days of The Crucified. Few would argue that he’s not one of the best lyricists in hard Christian music, and Speakeasy reinforces his ability. The song «Keep Waiting» is a good example:

That was far away from here
Feels like a million miles
Under unfamiliar skies
And more than one way far from dreams I’ve dreamed
We’ve seen the blinding light
There was hope, but was there time?
Slow trigger, starting line
Each day of waiting to see eternity
You never left my side
You never left my mind

Every one of these songs is a gem. Stavesacre has a way of making music that seems almost magical. Still, it’d be nice to have a little variety from album to album. [Michial Farmer, The Phantom Tollbooth, 11/18/99]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/speakeasy/724303316)

CD tracklist:

01. Minuteman – 3:18
02. Sundown Motel – 5:13
03. Keep Waiting – 4:33
04. You Know How It Is – 2:17
05. Rivers Underneath – 6:12
06. Gold And Silver – 5:13
07. Freefall (From Hand To Hand) – 6:41
08. St. Eriksplan – 2:45
09. Untitled – 3:40
10. Disquiet – 4:06
11. Fascination Street – 3:57
12. This Love – 6:35

Note: Remastered (supervised by Mark Salomon) and re-issued as a 12-inch vinyl double LP by Tooth & Nail in 2019.

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