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Starsailor
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On The Outside
EMI Music
Release: 10/17/2005
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Rated:
Review by:
Jonathan Shipley
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Starsailor's first UK Top Ten hit was the single, "Alcoholic." What
did this say about our brethren overseas? That's frightening! For
one thing - they're all football hooligans with bad teeth and now
their alcoholic? Where does all this come from? Because we
kicked their asses in the Revolutionary War? Sorry, guys, but
that's, you know, history, so you should get over it and not act
out so rashly. Hooliganism?! Is that what your kind has resorted
to? Not flossing? Drinking to excess? Indeed!
When Britons aren't avoiding dental hygiene, or smashing
themselves in pubs with names like Bear and Staff and Wolf and
Staph (Infection), or smashing their skulls in after a particularly
rough football match with Tottenham, they're forming rock
bands similar to Travis and Coldplay. That's not to say that's not
a good thing. Travis is pretty good. Coldplay is popular,
particularly with that lead singer of theirs having carnal relations
with Gwyneth Paltrow, and now there's Starsailor, making waves
across the waves in America with their third album (after
Love is Here and Silence Is Easy)
On the Outside.
The album is your regular British rock stuff, i.e. U2, i.e. Echo &
the Bunnymen, i.e., well, Travis and Coldplay. The regular British
rock stuff gets a bit tedious though and throughout the album
you're starting to question whether you're hearing several
distinctive tracks or just one long song.
Am I being rough? I don't mean to be. The album is passable.
One could listen to it while doing the dishes and not feel too bad
about it (particularly if your hands don't get chapped). Do YOUR
hands get chapped when doing a lot of dishes? What's up with
that?! You'd think the water would add moisture to your skin,
not take it away. I digress.
James Walsh, lead singer, throws himself headlong into the
tunes and there are some gems if you tune in and not worry
about the fact that the bubbles in your sink are going away and
there's still plenty of pans to clean. Like "Faith Hope Love," that's
a pretty good tune. It'll make you want to sway your hips a bit,
maybe getting some soapy water to dribble over the top of the
sink, getting on your sweatpants. No worries, it's worth it. Sway,
just don't become an alcoholic hooligan with bad teeth. We
didn't lose the war, Americans, we won it. The best way to show
it? Sway...and floss. |
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