Charley Stone and the Actual Band – Here Comes the Actual Band (self-released)
Indie scene queen Charley Stone’s long-awaited album of original songs, as performed with The Actual Band, doesn’t disappoint. Here Comes the Actual Band reveals a vibrant, swirling inner world set to steady rock outs.
Artist: Charley Stone
Album: Here Comes the Actual Band
Label: Self-released
Released: 29 May 2024
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
If you don’t know Charley Stone, you do.
A long-standing and prolific musician with unwavering enthusiasm for the independent scene Stone has played in pretty much all the bands. A brief run down of her resume sees her as a member of Linus, Salad, Spy ’51 and Gay Dad (among others) and now taking up duties with those including Sleeper, Desperate Journalist, Joanne Joanne, Fallen Women, and Keith Top Of The Pops and His UK Minor Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band (again, an abbreviated list).
And now, brilliantly, is a debut album from the indie scene queen. In Here Comes the Actual Band we have a record which reverberates with so many on that long list, and yet is firmly her own authentic sound. It’s honest but humorous, scrappily lo-fi yet bolstered by spot-on production. That alone suggests a triumph but let’s look closer at what we’re gifted.
Opening with a shimmer before a drop into a sparse ticking guitar line Now perfectly juxtaposes self-actualisation with procrastination. It stands defiant, but as the guitar fills out the frustration creeps in to the self-talk. The bubbling need to do everything takes the lyric from definite to debating with oneself and back around again. It sets the scene for an album of introspection, longing, and subject matter which is both based on lived experience and exploratory ways to process everything.
Musically we get a similar blend of experience and exploration, with plenty here recalling the many bands Stone has contributed to. It sweeps through genres from sparse indie, to chugging rock, and swirling psych. It could feel messy but hits on wonderfully multi-faceted, Stone a steadying force and singular personality at the centre.
Some of the tracks here have been previously recorded and released as solo material, and the artist points out the arrangements have changed for these versions captured with the Actual Band (that being Mar K of The Ethical Debating Society, The Charlemagnes, and Thee Faction on bass and Lily Rae of Fightmilk and Captain Handsome). Stone says to: “Consider this album a document of the form they [the tracks] took whenever the three of us performed them live during the latter half of 2023 and early 2024.” Another wonderful blend in play: album as committed version and ephemeral moment.
Back to the music; Better With You has chunky yet chiming Britpop-reminiscent guitar and an almost petulant vocal line (including catchy gang vocals), which on closer listen is thinly veiled vulnerability sparring with more of that defiance. It’s a similar mix very differently presented on Hangover Song. Here, lyrically, there is a stream of consciousness, a running of the mental checklist, and the increasing vulnerability in the vocal as existentialism seems to creep in around the edges.
Does She Mention Me? came from a prolific period in lockdown and a solo DIY version was released as a single in autumn of 2020. The version here has been, you might expect, filled out by the addition of a band but is no less laden with longing and loss.
When the solo version of this track was originally released we said: “With the quiet insistence of late night thoughts it questions, guitar gently blooming into the open spaces and filling the voids with warmth, as much of a suggestion of orchestrated pop as a solo effort could possibly make.” We wrote of how the keening and emotion were drawn upwards through the track and that stands true even in this bolder version.
Single Free Food brilliantly breaking the fourth wall between artist and listener as Stone spells out the metaphor being offered. Stone says this is her attempt to write about a socialist utopia, a half-spoken vocal encouraging us to consider how the spider lives (‘No, the spiders, they ARE the man / They just take what they want / But you know, we could be like that too’), to forage (‘I’m a born again freegan / With a sack full of loot’). It comes back around to love, and how we all need free food, and free love. Hard to argue with and the bouncing riffs, punctuating percussion, and more of those gang vocals really do make this an irresistible manifesto to sign up to and dance along to.
The album closes with another single, A Scream, and further reflections on relationships with self and others, and how it is all experienced. Tipping toward psych, the song is a bold, racing, swirling climax that makes you want to rush breathlessly back to the start and do this all again.
The real beauty of this collection is that it is vulnerable yet playful. There’s instant accessibility and catchiness in the musicality, with inviting depths to get into on repeat listens. It opens up the artist’s inner world without affectation, and revels in her accomplished musicianship without ever being self-indulgent or show-offy.
A sweet, scrappy, complex character of an album there is poignancy but so much joy – the connection to self and community through music a gossamer thread catching the shine from these tracks. Listen, listen again, and make sure if you get the chance to catch Charley (with or without the Actual Band – it’s all good) take it.
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Here Comes The Actual Band by Charley Stone is out now and available digitally, or on CD. Find our review of Does She Mention Me? here and Charley Stone live at JT Soar here.
Find Charley Stone: Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
Upcoming live dates include:
- 26 August – The Peer Hat, Manchester (solo)
- 1 September – The Lexington, London (with The Actual Band)
- 12 September – Cavendish Arms, London (with The Actual Band)
Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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