Press
Articles/Interviews
Interview at BrightestYoungThings.com, February 2008
Feature article in Baltimore City Paper, May 2004
Best Singer/Songwriter winner, Baltimore City Paper, 2003
Selected Reviews
Sweethearting (2007):
“Built upon sturdy melodies and the type of harmonies rarely practiced these days, they dared to be genuine and pretty, hurt and poppy, confused yet direct. They made pop that the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Mojave 3 would happily call their own.” —BrightestYoungThings.com
“The drizzly, cinematic sweep of Stahl’s road-weary, twentysomething heartbreak is more sharply observed than ever… Each song works beautifully as a little standalone slice of baroque indie-pop.” —City Paper
“Easily the band’s best sounding album to date… There are some new kinks in the band’s sound, like the jangly “Weeds,” with its 7/8 time signature and tasty high-hat patterns.” — CP Noise
“Baltimore’s best surprisingly top their quietly sparkling No Straight Lines. Sweethearting ups the ante… behind production so lush, firm, and warm, it takes over rooms.” —The Big Takeover
“Godamn this band is really good… Topping the list of bands they sound like is American Analog Set, [but] actually, in some instances, PE’s songs sound even prettier and more delicate.” —Palebear.com
“…savvy folk pop melodies with genuine lyrics and heartfelt performances. Truly a gem of 2007.” —Pasta Primavera
“Private Eleanor evoke the confident, mature sound of artists such as Red House Painters and the late Elliott Smith… The new record is an assured display of subtlety and craftsmanship.” —On Tap
“Private Eleanor is a cut above… Their songwriting is precise and poetic.” —Independent Clauses
No Straight Lines (2005):
“In the most complimentary sense, this could have been the final album Elliott Smith should have made.”—75orLess.com
“Hushed yet adamant whisper-folk-pop…Not far from where [Teenage Fanclub] have only now alighted… Recommended.” —The Big Takeover
“A serious new talent… The sound they have created is spare and lovely. No Straight Lines is a gentle, moving pop record that needs more ears listening to it.” —Dagger Zine
“No Straight Lines is an exceptionally well-produced record, 40-plus minutes of long-drive-with-nothing-to-talk-about mood food… Pretty darn affecting.” —City Paper
My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions (2003):
“Compelling, intimate and undeniably worthy of repeated listens.” —Splendid E-Zine
“[With] his precocious knack for finding an irresistible hook in shards of swirling noises - as on the sublime surge that revs up the cautionary tale ‘Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph’ - Stahl hits a pleasure center in the brain that’s his and his alone.” —City Paper
Deciduous (2002):
“…an obviously talented singer-songwriter that has rekindled my faith in home recording artists.” —The Big Takeover
“Deciduous is an album full of elegant grace, intelligent lyricism and subtle structure. Stahl has strung together a long thread of small, warm gems, each one full of miniature poetic treasures and compact, elegant melodies.” —Splendid E-Zine
