Album Review: Nine Stones Close - St Lo Reimagined (2026)

Artwork: Antonio Seijas

Written: 6th June 2026

It has been almost twenty years since the release of St Lo, the first album from Nine Stones Close. At that time, the band consisted solely of Adrian Jones who played all the instruments and performed all the vocals. St Lo was the result of Jones’s reflections on a terrifying incident in his life and one from which he has never fully recovered. The album’s concept is rooted in a serious head-on collision he experienced with his family in France. Although no one was killed, the impact was life-changing: Jones was trapped in the wreckage and taken to hospital in St Lô, which later gave the album its name, while other family members were treated separately in the chaotic aftermath.

He suffered multiple severe injuries that required extensive surgery and a long recovery, taking months before he could begin walking again. While he eventually regained mobility, the psychological impact remained. During his convalescence, Jones returned to music after years away, recording early ideas at home that would later form the basis of St Lo - a deeply personal work that documented trauma, survival and the slow path to recovery.

The idea for a reimagining of St Lo came when Jones revisited the original recordings and felt they no longer reflected what he could now express, recognising how basic they now seemed – at least to him - in hindsight. That prompted him to return to the material and approach it again with the benefit of time and experience.

St Lo (2008 artwork)

Originally released in 2008, St Lo was a twelve track, thirty-nine minute album. In a complete re-imagining and not simply a remix or remastering, it is now a nineteen track, seventy-two minute epic. With support from his Jet Black Sea bandmate, Michel Simons and other members of the more recent line-up of Nine Stones Close, St Lo is now remarkably transformed and offers an incredibly in-depth listening experience.

Much of the original album was instrumental, conjuring a range of moods and here this is explored even more deeply. Too Far Out opens the album in ambient fashion but now pensive strings add much to the atmosphere. The feeling of distance and detachment from reality is beautifully portrayed and the extra minute added to the track allows us to dive into the mindset of our protagonist. The urgent running footsteps at the end of Too Far Out sit perfectly within the mix and add to the drama.

A Door Opens adds to the darkness and hopelessness before Jones’s ominous guitar comes to the fore. Unleashing his first solo of the album, it is easy to hear why his playing is so compelling, with the ability to draw out intense emotional responses. There is the sense of something unbearable as the track reaches its conclusion. In his liner notes for the album, Jones refers to his own singing on the original St Lo as hideous and drone-like. While that may be a little harsh on himself, there is no doubt that Adrian O’Shaughnessy (who has performed on the last three albums by Nine Stones Close) is more gifted in the vocal department. His performance on Crashed brings a stark reality to the album, injecting bite into the lyrics. Crawling out of my mind / I can't feel me / I am here and I'm alive / But I'm not me. Capturing the immediate shock of the accident, it eerily portrays disorientation and an awareness of mortality.

While the initial part of the album continues to follow the same track listing as the original – Drowning Now, Silently Screaming and Remaining Days – there is now a much deeper level of immersion. O’Shaughnessy draws out the words in Drowning Now and Lars Spijkervet’s drumming gives a welcome surge of vitality, giving the music new life and making it clear this is far more than a light reworking.

First Morphine is a new addition and fits its title perfectly, beginning as an almost ambient drone, with a feeling of uncertainty flooding from the speakers. As the drug starts to take hold, gently picked guitar and some distant but gorgeous longer notes from Jones portray the unfamiliar relief coursing through his body. Michel Simons’s magical touch is also present here with some luscious synths depicting the synthetic euphoria of the situation. These extra tracks are by no means fillers and each one has been carefully positioned to augment the story and flow of the album. Placing First Morphine before A Sense of Colour makes perfect sense thematically. The latter reflects on emotional numbness and fading identity, where perception dulls and the world loses vibrancy. Holding fast to light / I feel me stripped away / reaching out a hand / I feel it slip to grey. While Jones’s solo on A Sense of Colour remains one of my favourite on St Lo, his heavier guitar work on new track Transported and also Ran Aground – which now contains additional lyrics and vocals - is a joy. His interactions with the more introspective keyboards of Michel Simons on Transported provide a delicate juxtaposition of sensations and Brendan Eyre’s thoughtfully restrained keyboards on Ran Aground add moments of true beauty.

A run of three new tracks – Further Out, 1AM and Wake – introduces new character, while the extended structure enhances the album’s handling of time and perspective. The pacing encapsulates the drawn-out uncertainty of recovery and separation from his family. It also reinforces the strength of the musical connection between Jones, Simons and Eyre. Wake explores the fragile boundary, reflecting confusion, paralysis and the desperate struggle to regain awareness in the immediate aftermath of injury. It's too warm in here / My eyes are glue / I can't speak / Not a word / Frozen in place / Lost without trace.

Hospital Bubble is still the longest track and this adds to the surreal disconnection, where identity feels altered and time blurs. Another example of the power of O’Shaughnessy’s vocals comes in his desperate, anguished delivery of the line It’s what I need… to find, a moment that cuts through with genuine weight. While Jones’s music has always been deeply personal, in O’Shaughnessy - who first sang with Nine Stones Close on the 2016 album Leaves -  he has found a voice he clearly trusts - one capable of fully conveying the confusion, vulnerability and slow process of physical and emotional rebuilding that sit at the heart of the album.

Corridors and Panic Attack - two new and sharply contrasting tracks - move from the disorientating image of being wheeled through hospital corridors, staring up at the ceiling as voices drift in and out, to the sudden, overwhelming realisation of what has happened. The short Interlude to Something leads to a reprise of Remaining Days which allows its meaning to shift. It returns not as an immediate reaction to the trauma but as a reflection shaped by everything that has followed. It reinforces the idea that recovery is ongoing, with the lasting impact of the experience still present long after the physical survival.

Red and White now opens with the ethereal synths that blend with choral, angelic voices. There is a vulnerability to the music that echoes the delicate nature of our bodies but also emphasises the basic instinct to keep breathing and endure. See the shards of life / All red and white / Gleaming in the daylight / This fragile life. It is a striking example of Jones’s inherent skill in building tracks until they ignite, culminating in a soaring solo and powerful drumming before ending abruptly rather than fading away - mirroring the sudden, unresolved nature of the trauma itself and refusing any easy sense of closure.

Viewed in context, it is easy to see why Adrian Jones felt compelled to return to St Lo. He has often been openly critical of the original, seeing it as something he needed to create at the time rather than a work he was fully satisfied with. Its largely solo construction perhaps left it feeling separate from what Nine Stones Close would later become. Yet even then, there was an honesty at its core that resonated with listeners. This reimagined version brings that honesty into sharper focus, not by simply revisiting the material but by reshaping it entirely.

With Paul van Zeeland’s careful mixing and production giving the album clarity and cohesion and Antonio Seijas’s artwork aligning it visually with more recent releases, it now sits naturally within the band’s catalogue rather than apart from it. The contributions of additional musicians and new material feel purposeful throughout, each part serving the narrative. It is clear that Jones has found a level of confidence in presenting this material that was not there before.

Lyrically, St Lo is not an easy listen and it was never meant to be. The subject matter demands time and attention, rewarding those willing to sit with it from beginning to end, ideally in isolation, where its detail and pacing can fully take hold. It is an album that invites you to sink deep into its dark spaces and stay there, tracing its progression from shock through confusion to something more reflective.

St Lo will appeal to a range of rock fans for drawing on the atmospheric depth of Pink Floyd, the melodic introspection of Marillion and the modern edge of Porcupine Tree, while at times leaning into a darker, grunge‑tinged weight that hints at Alice in Chains and even touches of Zeppelin‑like grit in the guitar work. When Jones first mentioned reworking St Lo, it is doubtful anyone expected a transformation of this depth. What emerges is a strikingly redefined work that feels entirely renewed and one that fans of Nine Stones Close will undoubtedly embrace.

St Lo Reimagined is due for release on 19th June 2026. It will be available digitally and also in a 3 CD version (featuring the Reimagining, the original album remastered and the original album remixed by Paul Van Zeeland).

https://ninestonesclose.bandcamp.com/