Album Review: The Cactus Channel - Stay A While

Alt-soul outfit The Cactus Channel bring us yet another delightfully complex, wholly satisfying album with their latest, Stay A While.

In feeling, it's like a more downbeat, synthier Al Green record and in style it ambitiously challenges genre, drawing from many resources such as funk, pop, alternative, ambient and of course soul. A great addition to Stay A While is its dreamy, charismatic vocals delivered by Lewis Coleman, the band's guitarist turned frontman. Coleman's vocals float in and out of your consciousness like a cool sea breeze, lulling you into a soothing state of daydream. This inclusion of vox makes for a more accessible, mature sound for the previously largely instrumental group, a gamble that ultimately works in their favour. Cornchips, one of the more tonally melancholic tracks on the LP, stands out for its experimental nature. Sounding more like a soundscape than a song, Cornchips suggests a move further towards some truly innovative territory, cementing The Cactus Channel as a band who aren't afraid to push boundaries. Always a good thing and in this case, a great thing.