Starsailor
Silence Is Easy

THE REVIEW

With the decline of Britpop, many bands emerged that, with varying fortunes, dominated the European music scene and, to a lesser extent, the American one. Mostly English, these bands experienced very different fates, but if there’s one band that, in my opinion, managed to write excellent music, it’s certainly "Starsailor." Particularly loved in continental Europe, in Belgium but also in Italy, they debuted in 2001 with the magnificent "Love Is Here," dominated by dark atmospheres that, however, gave way to luminous gems like "Lullaby" and "Good Souls." The success of this first album was overwhelming, yet I believe their masterpiece is the second album, "Silence Is Easy." Profoundly different from its predecessor, this work favors much brighter and heartfelt atmospheres: I have often presented my theories on objectified music (which, mind you, are not mine but put forth by excellent musicologists). Well, this work is a great example of objectified music. It is almost impossible to separate the joyful flow of the initial "Music Was Saved" from a sense of returning to a perhaps happier and carefree past. The same applies to the highly rhythmic title track "Silence Is Easy." But the peaks of the album lie elsewhere: in the carpet of violins in "White Dove," where James Walsh’s voice seems to say "a small coffee," and the mind immediately goes to a commuter waiting for the train in a small mountain station with the cold of winter mornings. It is a very spiritual album, much more than "Love Is Here," and this is demonstrated by tracks like "Fidelity," where its apparent darkness is only the darkness before the light. Or the guitar arpeggio in "Some Of Us," which refers to finally reconciled human relationships. The most "cross-cutting" track compared to the mood of the album is "Shark Food," where Walsh attacks the music "system" and those who accused him of making easy money with the first album. "Four To The Floor" is a sarcastic mockery of these rich individuals all about fashion and nightclubs; Four on the floor, says the title, and it truly conveys a sense of a perverse world clashing with a return to old values and a simpler life. The last drum echoes of "Four To The Floor" fade, and a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio praises the absolute peak of the album, "Born Again." Born again, that’s the title of a truly spectacular piece that indeed speaks of rebirth and redemption. The violin inserts are extraordinary, and their change of key towards the middle of the piece. The finale is a triumph of joy and passion, where the objectification of music triumphs incessantly. The melody's carpet fades to make room for "Restless Heart," which closes the album with a solitary guitar arpeggio and a sense of calm and peace. With this album, "Starsailor" have demonstrated their full command of musical writing combined with a sense of interiority uncommon in other bands. I hope they can always release work at this level...they deserve it.