I had a few unsuccessful bids at purchasing this album, so I was glad to finally get it in the mail. On Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice, Starflyer 59 returns to their guitar pop/shoegazer sound. In 2004, they surprised everyone with I am the Portuguese Blues, by going back to their old grungier rock sound. IATPB received poor reviews, but was a good album driven by bold, catchy guitar riffs. On the new disc, front man Jason Martin and drummer Frank Lenz go back to the dreamy bittersweet pop found on Leave Here a Stranger and The Fashion Focus, but with a few twists. This is a darker album lyrically and while most SF59 albums have a consistent sound, Martin adds some subtle electronica and strings to create some unique melancholia. These moody tunes thrown in with everything else makes it sound like they wandered off the path for a spell, but now they’re back and everyone is okay. As producer, Marin gave up the muddled-on-purpose sound of IATPB and went with their more classic cleaner sound, though this CD features a much more layered presentation than previous albums. While it may not quite reach the quality of the aforementioned albums, this shows even more growth musically from them and is another great outing by SF59.
2.90 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale.
Listening to this is like shivering deep inside yourself for no reason and when you reach out for someone to steady your nerves no one is there.
3 comments:
Wait - does this mean you get your music through eBay? 'Cause that's interesting...
Actually, I meant "bid" as in "attempt". A few trips to music stores and attempts to order it from their label failed...until this week. I do occasionally go the ebay route, though.
Huh. You'd think they wanted to sell it.
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