Album Review: Julia Stone - By The Horns

By The Horns is a journey to all the extremes of the emotional spectrum from hopeful, to weary, naive to mature and longingly hurt to bubbling with optimism. The second solo offering from Julia Stone is a more mature insight from 2010's Memory Machine and more ambitious, despite the occasional frailties of her voice, as she fills out her band with guests that have accompanied Bon Iver and Antony & the Johnsons, as well as the rhythmic support of The National's Bryan Devendorf.

The influence of the Ohio five-piece is evident throughout By The Horns as Stone's introverted musings and reflections are driven by an underlying passion and strength in a similar manner to High Violet. And despite an almost vulnerable cover of Bloodbuzz Ohio, By The Horns is also a distinctly more assertive and matured Julia Stone. This is no more evident than on the title track, where she concludes that she “believes in love”, despite the fact that she has learned her “lesson, no one is to blame, except for you”. This accusation resonates throughout the record and spurns her to explore the heart and its fallacies, lies and transgressions, finally closing with The Line That Lies To Me and the ability of the heart to forgive, “Everyone's a little lost on how to love well... the beautiful thing is that everyone keeps going back for more/I always come back to wanting to love, even when I get hurt”.

And after going the emotional journey with Stone, and cradling her at the end, there is little doubt that By The Horns will keep you coming back for more, despite the absence of her brother's 'gruff, masculine' influence.