It's been a long time coming. But it's here. It's the best record of the last 4 years. It's the most powerful, vivid, emotional lyric since Morrissey used to exist. It's Starsailor.
Now, I'm more than aware that many of you who are reading this now, don't particularly like this record. Hey! There may even be one or two of you who actually dislike it. But even if you despise anything with any kind of melody, and naked despair just isn’t your bag, you have to admit that this record has SOMETHING.
Something more than "Yellow", which had words that clearly Chris Martin borrowed off one of Noel Gallagher's worst days. Something more than any Travis song ever written, this is not MOR Radio Two stuff. This is just a tad, not much I grant you, but just a tad different to anything else out there at the moment. I'm not saying that everything else it shit, and Starsailor are our lord and masters who‘ve come to save us, it's just that when I first heard this record, I stopped. I put down my pint, and looked out of the window of my pub, and felt something change. I felt moved by a song for the first time since "No Surprises".
I could imagine the daddy of the song, and his desperate, violent fight against alcoholism. I could imagine the no doubt beaten Mother, who "kept it all inside" and suffered in silence while her husband sent who through hell. I could imagine the narrator of the song, who was just so much BETTER than all this, and who knew a way out and was ready to go. There’s a whole Northern play within this song, in 3 and a half minutes. It's a gritty, rainy, cold drama full of unsatisfied characters and violent oppressors. It’s so real, so much the opposite of production line pop.
I wish I could tell you why I love this record so much. I've had a good go. Just be careful you don't miss out on them while they're here. You may just miss them when they're gone.
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10Joe Wisbey's Score