Starsailor - 'Silence Is Easy' (EMI)
4/5
By: Toby L
Crass, but fair; as Starsailor hammer through the opening refrain of 'Music Was Saved', singer James Walsh exudes the sort of snotty arrogance that only a great Northern band could get away with. And it's spine-tingling.
Possibly vital, as 'Love Is Here', the band's debut - a million-seller - doesn't seem to have held up through the mists of time. Save for a string of hit-singles, and a preceding media-hype, critics have since construed the Chorley quartet as 'limp' indie-waifs, indebted to the past, with 'whining' a consensus over riveting innovation. Nonsense, of course, but anyone still in doubt is set to be affirmed with the band's bold, mysteriously brief, and commendably assured second LP, 'Silence Is Easy'.
As if the Phil Spector-produced, top-ten title-track wasn't enough, then there are moments of sheer, harmonious depth that will enthral and compel - and more than occasionally stagger. Whether the dark, bleak tones of a shuddering 'Fidelity', escapist melancholy of 'Some Of Us' or bolstering dance-grooves of 'Four To The Floor' (an inevitable single, and an indie take-on of Dr Dre and Tupac's 'California Love'... no joshing), there's range, purity and versatility on Starsailor's latest record that will, fittingly, hush the cynics, whilst redefine fans' expectations in the very same swoop.
And, rewardingly, Walsh and co. are getting finer at producing definitive classics of their own as the clock ticks - best of all is the band's gospel-soul 'Born Again', replete with choir-backing and plaintive acoustic-picking - serving as the arch, transcendent precedent to a closing, chilling 'Restless Heart'.
Like before, it will piss people off, though. Starsailor aren't (always) a band concerned with a Coldplay-ish tendency to repeat the same hook for a full five minutes in a desperate radio-hit bid. Instead, they take the intricacies and beauty of their inspirations to form a collection of compositions that are as sharp as they are instant. Even still, there remains an overriding suspicion that those not impressed or bowled over already really shouldn't expect to be now.
Artists in this article: Starsailor
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