Starsailor
Love Is Here

THE REVIEW

From the debut of a young indie-rock quartet, formed in Chorley, that part of England where brit-pop bands pop up like mushrooms, you wouldn't expect even half of all this... "Love is here" is instead a masterpiece without mincing words, without labels, a record where styles mingle but the sounds never muddy. A clear album with dark and intimate tones, nostalgic and why not, mature... To say that these young lads (at the time of their debut) are only a little over 20 each, and in '70, when Tim Buckley released his album "Starsailor", from which James Walsh's band "borrows" the name, the four were probably still nursing at their mother's breast. Perhaps due to their independent record label, or as a corollary of a genre (brit), often a moment of break from social stereotypes (Oasis teaches...), "Love is here" is a record full of anger, as evident from the lyrics and Walsh's edgy voice. This anger, however, is contained by the impressive and sophisticated musical setup of the "Star", never sparse and simple as the brit often allows its flag bearers. What comes out is something unexpected and reaches high levels, perhaps unattainable for any group not named Pink Floyd.

The session is opened by "Tie up my hands", a masterstroke in production, considering the piece, one of the best on the entire album, seems to wrap you up gradually and then leave you with that sense of fulfillment, which makes the rest smooth sailing. Yet it's not so, because the level never drops and after "Poor Misguided Fool" (a sort of seductive tango rock!), comes an "Alcoholic", that if it had been composed by U2, we would be here talking about it as a milestone of melodic world rock. You can't even catch your breath when "Lullaby" makes us dream, in the wake of previous tracks, with guitar and piano seemingly making love on the soft rhythmic bed of bass and drums. "Way to fall" is another tear-jerking masterpiece, a decidedly "guitar-friendly" piece, transformed by the four English lads into a melodic ballad of high drama. You then have to really stop to breathe to understand that what you're listening to is real because you're only on the fifth track, but the emotions are already at a thousand. "Fever" is a leading single, but it has nothing different from the rest; in fact, it's perfectly integrated and it's no surprise it was snubbed by British networks. The times and rhythms are not at all radio-friendly, but the "Star" didn't yet care about the airwaves, they would in future productions ("Four to the floor" would be a strong hit on their second album). Intimate and profound, "She just wept" doesn't worry about taking off and like many of the songs on this album, prefers to fly low, just to not get lost in the nothingness of the sky and remain firmly attached to a sincere melody full of vivid emotion. The title track (perhaps my favorite song!) "Love is here”, is a chilling song, breath-stealing in a melancholy that doesn’t produce anguish but serenity. The double guitar (acoustic/electric) of Walsh and James Stelfox’s bass here united in unison go in a sweet crescendo, Barry Westhead’s piano cements the whole, while Ben Byrne’s cymbals are precise and never intrusive. The final riff with a sharp closure would alone be worth the price of the record.

But the record has three other pearls before the close: "Talk her down”, which picking up track number 2 drags us into dance-like, almost ballroom atmospheres. "Good Souls" is very Oasis in its lightness, while the epilogue "Coming Down", is a rocking ballad with acoustic sounds, that don’t lose the poignant melody of the entire work. Starsailor, in the following years, would make two other great albums, but it would have been truly impossible to match "Love is here", perhaps precisely for this reason they chose to distance themselves a little from its tones: imitating oneself without surpassing would have made no sense... After all, Coldplay did the same, who, after "Parachutes”, changed tone, producing two similar and absolutely beautiful albums, although different from the first. "Love is Here" never tires, you can listen to it in the car or in the living room, alone or with your woman, at night or day... this is simply music!