Starfucker
Reptilians

Six reviews on the latest mediocre album by Muse and not even half a one on Starfucker? What a shame, it’s absolutely unaccept... actually no, all the better, I'll write it myself and claim the primogeniture: I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the eye also wants its share and a surrealist cover like this is something iconic, worthy of an art gallery: two children with rosy cheeks, looking bewildered at a desolate, probably alien landscape, with a leaden sky in the background where pink pterodactyls are flying. Add to that an intriguing and evocative title like "Reptilians" and you have enough ingredients to spark interest and curiosity, which will be amply rewarded because this wonderful cover is not a mere lure but the perfect graphic setting for an album that, without mincing words, is a wonderful, fresh, and innovative new offer in the pop field, with personality and class to spare.

Lately among the "new wave" of pop, much visibility and airplay have been given to trash like Hurts and even the awful Empire Of The Sun, ontological nullities that steal space from artists far more deserving of attention like our Starfucker, a band originating from Portland, formed in 2007, and in particular, this second album dated 2011. Unlike the singles from the mediocrities mentioned above, the songs from this group are not suited to be broadcast from supermarket speakers and the like: they are pop, blatantly pop and splendidly danceable, engaging, yet those dreamlike and visionary, almost spatial atmospheres are ill-suited for ears used to alternating Madonna and Oasis with Ligabue and Pausini as simple and insignificant background. "Reptilians" as a background is absolutely not suitable, it is a record that requires to be lived intensely. It is a structurally solid album, where all the songs row in the same direction to form a single musical trip of about forty minutes, giving the impression of admiring little stars with psychedelic colors twinkling continuously in a cloudless sky. Pseudo-infantile voice and synthesizers in full swing, this is the winning combination of "Reptilians", producing authentic gems like the ethereal and fluttering opener "Born", the only episode where the threatening clouds of the cover seem distant and far away, the epic otherworldly dance of "Julius" and "Millions", the psychedelic reflections of mantras like "Bury Us Alive" and "Astoria", the reverberated pathos of "Mystery Cloud", a revisited and anesthetized power-pop like "Death As A Fetish", the light melancholy of "Reptilians", a beautiful semi-acoustic almost retro melody, and to end, an instrumental exit-music whose title is a whole program, "Quality Time".

In certain episodes, the album lacks a bit of consistency in songwriting to be considered a masterpiece, but the atmosphere and personality perfectly compensate for this gap. If I had to associate it with an element, "Reptilians" would certainly be air, but there is also fire, passion, and sensuality, subliminal yet perceptible. In my opinion, if Donovan were born around 1990, his music would be more or less like Starfucker’s, the same talent in conceiving clever and alluring melodies that at times almost seem like nursery rhymes, but with immense class; even vocally we are not so far apart and in structural perfection and sound organicity, "Reptilians" can be compared to "Wear Your Love Like Heaven". The spirit for me is the same even if obviously the ingredients and sounds are different: a bit of new wave, synth-pop, glitch, electronics and psychedelia at the service of a future-ready and stylish dance. Hats off and heartfelt congratulations, they have fully earned them.