Based in Los Angeles, USA, Mike Stocksdale has been featuring on our blog since 2022.
By Graeme Smith
Jane discovered him for us through his single Bad Bad World while last year I ran the rule over his live album Settle Down!
His latest release, Connectors, brings us nostalgia-tinged folk rock in the vein of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Stocksdale adds his voice to the annals thanks to a storytelling album in which one track flows naturally into the next.
Connectors starts raucously with the suitably titled Ain’t Nothing Like Beginning. It’s a spirited intro that welcomes us warmly. Then, Elevator brims with heartache while keeping things upbeat.
From there we get the blues in the form of Wolf Blues. Ohio shows us a gentler side of Stockdale’s sound through a soulful acoustic moment. Suspicions of the Apocalypse takes a broody, spoken word twist. It build to Pink Floyd levels of psychedelia and it’s there that we settle into the drama of the story and discover just how diverse the sound is on this album.
The diversity is held together by its rock and roll core as well as its overarching narrative of the highs and lows of love.
That Sorta Thing returns us to the blues in a highlight. Loretta is a quiet, confessional interlude the simmers through to Avocados, the strikingly philosophical Still a Chance at Anything and plucky album closer Three Times in The Pilot.
Connectors was recorded live by Mark Rains at Station House Studios in Echo Park, California, with Stocksdale on vocals, guitars, keys, percussion, and production. Ulf Mickael Wahlgren joins on drums, percussion, and backing vocals as does Alex Balderston on bass guitars, percussion, and backing vocals.
The post-recording crafting was done without the help of AI to ensure a human experience from start to finish. Mixing was done by Stocksdale and mastering by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering in Camarillo, California. Stocksdale did some additional recording and engineering, as well as creating the artwork.
The result is a reassuringly wholesome experience. You can tell Stocksdale and his collaborators are making the music for the joy of it, and to tell a thoughtful story, not a synthesised one.
The seamless album has been done before, but that’s no reason it shouldn’t be done again. Mike Stocksdale does it well, stitching tracks together to take us on an emotional and varied journey.
Connectors is out now, and you can listen to it below.
