“There’s one thing that I need to know, like where do all my tears go?”
Hard to tell whether it’s deliberate or not, but Steve Jones – alias Stylusboy – always manages to sound vaguely wistful when sings. Strangely enough, this quietly thoughtful persona is one of Stylusboy’s more endearing features. The Coventry singer-songwriter’s deput EP, Fingerprint, sets Jones’ delicately heartfelt vocals to a varied score of intricate acoustic guitar and stargazing glockenspiels and creates something wonderful. Fingerprint is poetic pop with heart; melodic and unpretentious from the playful vocal harmonies in the chorus on “Open” to the softly-spoken alt-country of “A Song for Noah” and its heartwarming message from father to son.
Unusually for an acoustic EP, Fingerprint owes less to the folk tradition than it does to indie rock á la Death Cab or Aqualung. These are not songs about despair or loss – at his lowest, Jones seems to invoke a mild sense of melancholy – but rather about hope and happiness, and that’s refreshing in an indie artist. Stylusboy’s songs are written with more verve and charm than most, and ultimately, it really works. Heartbreak may have penned some of the best songs ever written, but contentment puts them in perspective.
Track // “Open” (mp3)
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Marcus Kernohan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Stereokill.net. Email him at 
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