Posted on: September 29, 2019 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

State Line Diner is Kristina Stykos’s first song on her new release, River of Light. Stykos is able to blend together Melissa Etheridge and Patti Smith, with a catchiness to this introductory track that is reminiscent of Tom Petty’s early nineties output. The guitar work crackles with electricity during this first cut, a trend that Stykos continues through the whole of River of Light. I Like A Hard Hearted Man calls back to the 1950s and 1960s country western tradition, as Kristina whips in just the right amount of bayou and blues into the finished effort. Little more is needed during this composition than Stykos’s vox and guitar, establishing an effort that will stick around fans’ brains for the foreseeable future.

Since You Asked has Stykos weave a tremendous narrative in the vein of Neil Young or Bob Dylan. During this composition, the guitar takes a secondary role to provide highlighting for specific points of Kristina’s tale. In the Cleansing Rain provides listeners with a view into another set of distinct musical influences that shaped Stykos’s formative years. This time around, there’s a bit of 1980s rock that bubbles through with subtle nods to Graceland-era Paul Simon and a bit of Phil Collins. The instrumental, guitar/drum interludes delve a bit deeper into the corpus of early jam acts like the Dead.

Climb This Ground slows things down; the careful introduction gradually grows into a musically intricate and sublimely satisfying instrumental-heavy interlude. The dynamic between voice and guitars here will perk fans up for the final few songs on River of Light. Godspeed concludes things with a deliberate, Gary Jules-esque piano line interacting with classical guitar lines. Stykos’s River of Light concludes authoritatively with this instrumental effort.

Top Tracks: I Like A Hard Hearted Man, In the Cleansing Rain

Rating: 8.5/10

Kristina Stykos – River of Light / 2019 Thunder Ridge Records / 13 Tracks / Domain /

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