Stef Chura - Messes (2017) {Urinal Cake}

Posted By: shamanicus

Date: March 13, 2017

Detroit indie rocker Stef Chura's lowlit, burnished debut Messes showcases her way with setting a twilit mood and her magnetic, mutable voice.

By the time Stef Chura released her first full-length, Messes, in early 2017, she had been a longtime fixture of the Michigan independent music scene. Since moving from her upstate origins to Ypsilanti in 2009 (and Detroit a few years later), she played countless shows at houses and small venues, played with a few bands and started a few more to play her own compositions, and released several demo tapes. Following the death of a close friend, Chura felt it was necessary to immortalize her work with a proper studio album. Messes contains songs that appeared on earlier cassettes as well as newer material, and while they date from different points in her life, the album achieves a consistent sound, as Chura is backed by drummer Ryan Clancy (Jamaican Queens, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.) and multi-instrumentalist Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), who recorded the album at his studio. Like Thomas, Chura's songs are visceral snapshots of feelings and particular points in time, and they're often anxious and a bit angular rather than straightforward, hook-filled tunes. That said, she also has a knack for writing driving, powerful rock songs, particularly the fantastic lead single "Slow Motion." Songs like "You" and "Spotted Gold" carefully balance calm, dreamy verses with loud, fractured choruses, while others such as "Thin" and "Human Being" are slow and yearning. "Faded Heart" is more upbeat and slightly leans toward '50s rock & roll, and it showcases her fingerpicked guitar style as well as her sharp, twangy voice, which recalls elements of Neko Case, Stevie Nicks, and Patti Smith, but couldn't be mistaken for anyone else. The album's darkest, most detached moments are saved for the second half; the title track is slightly distorted, hazy, and unsettling, "Becoming Shadows" is shifty and distant, and the slow-burning "Speeding Ticket" is sadder and more reflective. The songs are all about stressful experiences, conflicts, and struggles, and this uneasiness is felt throughout the record, but all of this cathartic energy is harnessed in a highly skillful manner. Messes almost seems too accomplished to be referred to as a debut album.

AllMusic Review by Paul Simpson

Tracklist:

01. Slow Motion
02. You
03. Thin
04. Human Being
05. Faded Heart
06. Spotted Gold
07. Time to Go
08. Messes
09. On and Off For You
10. Becoming Shadows
11. Speeding Ticket

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 11. March 2017, 9:36

Stef Chura / Messes

Used Drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT50N Adapter: 1 ID: 0 (not found in database)

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 103
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T
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TOC of the extracted CD

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1 | 0:00.00 | 2:07.11 | 0 | 9535
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Track 1

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Track 2

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Track 3

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Track 4

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\04 - Human Being.wav

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Track 5

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\05 - Faded Heart.wav

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Track 6

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\06 - Spotted Gold.wav

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Track 7

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\07 - Time to Go.wav

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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 8

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\08 - Messes.wav

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Track 9

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\09 - On and Off For You.wav

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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 10

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\10 - Becoming Shadows.wav

Peak level 96.6 %
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Track 11

Filename C:\Rips v2\Stef Chura - Messes (FLAC)\11 - Speeding Ticket.wav

Peak level 96.6 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: 6NTWLNaRZF7_sHV4Pdo8db89q5A-] disk not present in database
Submit result: 6NTWLNaRZF7_sHV4Pdo8db89q5A- has been uploaded

==== Log checksum 4754547F5175193C849D4DBF258F15D447FBD21837E1FC029985ADB72719D4C1 ====

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