Rhinofy-About Us
1. "What Comes After"
This is one of the most beautiful songs you will ever hear. The original album-ender, you feel like you’re in heaven, but still alive. You want to conduct the orchestra with your hands, even though there’s limited instrumentation. This is the apotheosis of the Michael Brown/Ian Lloyd collaboration. This is the analogue to "Walk Away Renee". Don’t play it with anyone else in the room, but when it’s just you.
I don’t know what comes after, but listening to this song I don’t care.
2. "Love Is In Motion"
This is almost as pretty, and even more infectious.
If you’ve never heard this, you’ll absolutely freak when you hit the chorus. The sweetness and then the throaty exclamation. Whew!
The spacey intro, the handclaps, the changes, this is a masterpiece that demands replay…again and again and again.
So what’s the story here?
The band is called "Stories". And you know them for their one big hit, "Brother Louie", which dominated the airwaves during the summer of 1973. But that wasn’t on the album originally. It was stripped in after it became a big hit. And therefore, most people have no idea what the original band sounded like. Sure, it was the same players, but with different influences, it was closer to the Beatles than the retro soul of Hot Chocolate.
3. "Hey France"
The banging piano immediately hooks you, and then the straining vocal evidences an immediacy that grabs hold of you and won’t let go. And despite the Rod Stewartesque vocal, the track sounds nothing like the Faces, there are strings, more of that piano.
4. "Please Please"
There’s a cathedral-like intro, and then the song pops all over. This is the opposite of all those tracks where the guitarist just vamps. The track’s a roller coaster.
Yes, Stories was a joint venture between vocalist extraordinaire Ian Lloyd and keyboard legend Michael Brown, who wrote the legendary sixties hits "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina" for his band the Left Banke. If you’ve ever had a hankering for more of that sound, this is not only the best place to get it, but one of the only places to get it.
The rock press wrote about Stories. But their first album went unnoticed, and after this, their second, "About Us", came out, Brown promptly left the band. Before the aforementioned "Brother Louie", before all that TV exposure. It was kind of like the Zombies hitting with "Time Of The Season" after the band broke up. There was one more Stories album, but without Brown it was stiff on arrival.
5. "Darling"
This is a tear. As if a madcap classical composer made a rock track. It doesn’t grab you immediately, like "What Comes After" and "Love Is In Motion".
I bought "About Us" on a whim at Sam Goody’s in Westport, Connecticut. It was in the cut-out bin. I think I purchased the Kinks’ "Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One" the same day. That album was much more than the radio hit, and so was "About Us".
And although I put parts of "Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One" on the end of a ninety minute cassette containing "Preservation Act 2", "About Us" got its own forty six minute Maxell, both of which I made for my cross-country trip after graduating from college.
And there were moments of extreme loneliness on that journey.
And when I was sinking I’d put on "About Us" and it would lift me away to that special place only music can take you and everything would be all right in the world.
Some know "What Comes After" and "Love Is In Motion". Mentioning them makes their eyes light up. And now you do too. Maybe you’ll spread the word, but just maybe you’ll keep them for yourself. Because that’s what they are, personal.
If you ever laid on your bedroom floor dreaming of a better life, "About Us" is for YOU!
