Since blowing up on their second album, 2014’s If I Was, The Staves have experienced a lot – most of it not related to music. Moving across oceans and starting families are prime among them, but the three sisters always had a return to music in mind. Today they’ve revealed the details of their third album, Good Woman, which will come out in February. They say:
“We have been working on this for a long time and are thrilled to share the title track with you. When we think about making this album we think about moments and snapshots of all the different contexts we were in as it was made. Living in each other’s pockets and then living with oceans between us. On voice notes and field recordings and ideas in emails sent across continents. We think of homesickness and family. Of being an outsider. Of endless notebooks and scraps of paper. Of studios in the winter and recordings under the summer sun. Of rainy London days and long American night with coffees and beers, dogs and cats. We think of love. Big, big love. Our Mum. Our Dad, Our friends. And of loss. Death and birth. Womanhood, motherhood. Sisterhood.“
It makes sense then that they should release the title track, “Good Woman”, to launch this new voyage. The new track is a steady, driving number, that doesn’t need to be overly complex to ensure the message and feeling is transferred – especially when you have voices like these three. Seemingly looking back on their younger, more impressionable years, they trip through the verses, before their voices conjoin in a beam of grace that backs the stark but emphatic chorus: “I’m a good woman,” which only grows in vociferousness with each repetition to the resounding finale.
The Staves’ new album Good Woman arrives on February 5 via Atlantic. You can find the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
