The Poets Post It And The Frontmen Front It
Posted on | April 2, 2007 at 7:31 pm | Comments Off
Another CD Review!
Artist: Starflyer 59
Disc: My Island
Released: 2006
Number of Tracks: 10
Total Disc Time: 33:32
Album Content: Year after year after year, the prolific Starflyer 59 puts out these little underrated sonic gems. “Little” because the disc length rarely goes above 35 minutes. You always know what to expect when you pick up an SF59 album, and that’s not a bad thing. They do their thing, shove their uptempo melodic guitar/keyboard rock songs in your face for half an hour, and then get out. Yeah, some of the songs do tend to sound samey, but the short album length helps with that. Besides, who cares if they sound kind of the same, when they sound so good. Jason Martin, who seems to do most everything himself, has kind of a droney voice at times, but it works well within the context of the songs, which still tend to be very melodic even with that voice (a voice that I do like). And yeah, it’s a little weird how the vocal melody line is frequently echoed (or harmonized) on guitar, but you get used to it. It’s all part of their style.
The lyrics tend to be on the introspective and self-deprecating side (”no one ever gives it to the nice guy”), which I can relate to. They do try a few new musical things this time around – I like how the end of the chorus in Nice Guy goes into a ritard, so you think that the song is ending, and then the tempo picks up again. That song also has an extended piano-driven instrumental coda that is quite nice. I also like how the chorus of “I Win” spells out the title (”Eye Double-You Eye En”).
Don’t be put off by the “Christian” label (if that’s the sort of thing that turns you off), because if they are Christian, it’s not really evident in the lyrics or anything. They are on the Tooth & Nail record label, which is something of a Christian label, but so are a lot of other bands that don’t knock you over the head with the religious stuff. It’s just good, toe-tapping music.
Sound Quality: Very nice. The clean production shows off all the instruments well, especially the punchy bass throughout the album.
Liner Notes: Cool cover. The booklet is a fold out LP-size sheet that actually has lyrics. Bonus!
Worth The CD Buy? Most definitely. SF59 isn’t available on eMusic, so I always end up buying their albums. (They are on iTunes though.) Besides, I like the extra sonic quality that a band like this deserves to be heard with. What can I say? Fans will dig this, and everyone else should buy it and become a fan. I love this band.
Latre.