Good Woman

by 
AlbumFeb 05 / 202112 songs, 45m 38s
Indie Pop
Popular Highly Rated

Launched in July 2020, the *Dial-A-Stave* podcast revealed that UK sisters Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor can mine entertaining conversation from all manner of lockdown mundanities, asking how many baked potatoes is enough for one sitting and whether you should say “edgeways” or “edgewise.” Arriving six months later, the trio’s third album finds them refocusing on the big questions, processing grief, motherhood, and self-actualization on their most adventurous songs to date. While their harmonies remain warm and pure, and the melodies elegant and adhesive, there’s new abstraction to the music, building on the rangy ambitions of 2015’s *If I Was*. “Best Friend” bubbles with psych-pop impulses, “Careful, Kid” digs through relationship wreckage with an industrial churn, and the gauzy, shifting “Trying” suggests the influence of *If I Was* producer Justin Vernon.

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6.9 / 10

Working with John Congleton, the folk trio makes their most personal and energetic statement yet, sacrificing some of their clarion intimacy along the way.

The Staveley-Taylor sisters pulled through a turbulent period to produce a record that's soulful, sophisticated and forward-thinking

7.8 / 10

The Staves expand their sound on 'Good Woman,' their first new album in six years and most assured release yet.

For all the trials bestowed upon the trio in the past few years, they emerge positive and victorious.

Black Country, New Road’s debut feels like a letdown after the early hype, while The Staves offer an assured third album that feels like a thirty-something reset

'Good Woman', the fourth album from the The Staveley-Taylor sisters, is an exploration of grief, heartbreak and motherhood. Read the review.

Setting aside 2017's The Way Is Read, an adventurous collaboration with chamber ensemble yMusic, Good Woman is the Staves' first self-penned album in six years.

7 / 10

It was quite a year. Between the death of their grandmother and mother, a bad breakup, a pregnancy, and an unprecedented reckoning with thei...

Yet in their vulnerability, The Staves have produced their most defiant release to date.

8.0 / 10

For the better part of the last decade, The Staves have been one of folk’s preeminent acts.

8 / 10

Six years is a long time to leave between albums, but one listen to the title track and opener for the third full-length from The Staves reveals both all

On their third release, the Watford trio’s beautiful songwriting thrums with frustration at powerlessness and passivity

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Album Reviews: The Staves - Good Woman

Folk-singing sisters find hope in turmoil on third album

Album: The Staves - Good Woman. Review by Liz Thomson

8 / 10