Stop All the World Now

1	Brace Yourself 3:39
2	Perfect Time of Day 4:21
3	Collide 4:09
4	Trouble in Here 5:57
5	Sunday Morning Song 3:57
6	I'll Take You on 5:38
7	She Says 4:21
8	Numbness for Sound 3:51
9	You & A Promise 6:24
10	End of Our Days 4:22
11	Come Lay Down 5:52

Barnes & Noble

This Maine-bred post-mod folk-popster carved out a decidedly personal niche with his debut album, Australia, saturated with a blend of acoustic guitars and triggered tape loops. With Stop All the World Now, however, Day proves he's adept at playing with others -- an experiment he takes to greatest lengths on the lush "Numbness for Sound" and "Collide," both of which incorporate a 25-piece orchestra into swelling sonic waves. Day swaps his six-string for piano on "End of Our Days," adding a stately undertone to the wistful sentiments expressed in the tune; he sticks with the ivories for "Trouble in Here," which packs a little more muscle than many of Day's earlier tunes. Guitarist Jay Clifford -- best known for his work in Jump, Little Children -- injects some spring into the step of songs like "Perfect Time of Day," an uncharacteristically upbeat look at life from Day, who seems to have shed some of the uncertainty and angst that dominated his last disc. The title of this album aside, Howie Day has learned to come to terms with the outside world while retaining the innate quirkiness that drew fans his way in the first place -- and that's an impressive trick to pull off. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Howie Day's debut certainly showed promise, especially in the understated heartbreak of "Ghost" and "Morning After." But even in its eventual Sony reissue, Australia was a slapdash, often obvious album that rang with the stubbornness of youth. In his songs of relationships and loneliness, Day was too often the spurned boyfriend rewriting Radiohead and Badly Drawn Boy songs to air his grievances down at the local open-mic night. Given his principal influences, it's not surprising that Day recorded his sophomore effort in London. But he seems to have grown up quite a bit since Australia, and with the help of Verve and James producer Youth, made Stop All the World Now his great leap forward. He'll never outrun comparisons to wide-eyed romantics like Francis Healy and Richard Ashcroft. But instead of simply copping moves, Day has captured the formless yet boundless emotion that's the spiritual motor for both Ashcroft's solo work and Travis' The Man Who. Lyrically, "Brace Yourself" and "Trouble in Here" aren't as specific in their aims; unlike Australia, they never make the listener feel like the she-devil that trampled poor Howie's heart. Their big, beautiful arrangements embrace his voice, which soars into fluttering, higher registers, but also grates with real, pleading grit toward the end of "Brace Yourself." Echoing electric guitars recall Day's effects-laden 2002 tour, which found him performing over his own multiply looped self. But the presence of piano, harmonium, vibraphone, and the London Session Orchestra (most notably on "I'll Take You On") often suggest Bacharach with swelling strings and lilting verses; there's even a sample of what sounds like crashing waves at one point, pulling out all the stops in the production department. All of this lets you know that Stop isn't simply an acoustic troubadour album. But if you needed more proof, there's "She Says." Originally one of Australia's strongest moments, the song's acoustic frame is here bowed out by a full-on arrangement of keening strings, steadily building drums, and enough reverb to fill the Grand Canyon. "When she says she wants someone to love/Hope you know/She doesn't mean you" was always one of his strongest couplets; with the triumphant guitars and surging violins behind it, the track now has the full grandeur of U2's most plaintive moments. The best part? Day has figured out how to sell the emotion as his own, even if the hymns of his heroes still echo through his music. Johnny Loftus