• Band / Artist : Steadman
• Genre : Pop / Rock
• Sample Track Download : Come Alive
• Buy CD : Buy
• Buy Digital Download : Buy
• Rating : 8 out of 10

It’s always great when you get a great testimonial like this: “The band Steadman have the songs, the musicianship, the energy and the enthusiasm to blow the top off any club, or arena, and, if given a listen, have that rare quality — the ability to deliver! I like this band!!”. When the someone giving the testimonial is Sir Paul McCartney, you know you’re doing something right. However right though, the band Steadman do seem to be a bit on the unlucky side, having won major record deal and then lost them again. However, once again podcasts are doing their magic and after appearing on the TWiT podcast, I finally managed to find out about them.

Steadman is 5 guys from the UK, now living in US. The band has something like 130 songs available on their website, including 3 albums and it is the most recent album “Revive” that I’m covering here. Before I go further though, let me please emphasise again, that although all 130+ songs are free to download, a band does have to eat and play XBox, so please consider making a contribution. At present all contributors will receive in return some nice goodies.

So on with the album. At the risk of hurting the bands feelings, I need to get this out of the way. I hate the first song, The Bitter End. I don’t know what it is, but on the burned copy I made, which has been playing in the car for the past few days, I skip track 1 every single time. However from that point on, everything is bleedin’ triffic. There’s a real indie vibe to the band and I don’t think I would be far wrong in saying that the majority of the album sounds very much like the LA’s or Cast. There’s also some other influences there, including a Marc Bolanesque sound, but the album as a whole (apart from track 1) fuses very well.

For me the standout track has to be the mellow, acoustic, track 7. I’ve played this song numerous times and am thankful that I drive to work alone, as any passengers would surely want to strangle me as I’ve sometimes played this song back to back 3 or 4 times.

Conclusion : This is another one of those win, win situations. You get to download a cracking good album, free of charge and enjoy it at leisure. I can’t help thinking this is maybe too much of a good thing, but who am I to complain. Go grab yourself a copy and hear for yourself.