While it’s a huge improvement over the catastrophe that was Without Feathers, The Stills’ new single “Being Here” doesn’t quite recapture the moody immediacy of anything off its debut Logic Will Break Your Heart from 2003. The band clearly learned a hard lesson from its sophomore slumping mistakes, but “Being Here” is too shiny and slick, bordering on cheesy. Admittedly, the band straddled that line even on Logic, but those songs were strong enough to sustain a few dings in the armor. The fact that the new album is called Oceans Will Rise doesn’t help the cheese factor much, but at least this sounds like The Stills, pretentious grandiosity and all.

The Stills – Being Here