On its unexpectedly great debut album, Logic Will Break Your Heart, this Montreal four-piece managed to gracefully update the kohl-eyed new wave drama of bands such as the Psychedelic Furs and Echo and the Bunnymen. With the follow-up, the Stills look to inspiration from a more unlikely source: flannel-wearing, bagpipe-blowing, mullet-wearing '80s Scottish rockers, Big Country. No, really. The opening track and first single from Without Feathers, "In The Beginning," sounds like a distant slightly inbred cousin of ATV anthem "Fields of Fire." Coincidence? Perhaps. Meanwhile, a severe line-up change has left the Stills devoid of much of its original edge, as evidenced in sleepy, inspiration-free tracks like "In The End" and the doggedly mid-tempo "The House We Live In." Those that were reeled in by the last disc are in for bitter disappointment. But for, say, Simple Minds fans, it's another banner day. --Aidin Vaziri
