(RCA)
Although stellastarr* debuted their first full-length album, , just last month, the album's music conforms to a much older genre of music. While the members of stellastarr* did not start playing together until the late '90s, the New York-based band sounds like a product of the '80s in almost every way.
Stellastarr*'s marching drum beats and echoing guitar riffs unapologetically trespass on territory claimed by '80s bands like The Cure, U2 and The Pixies. And the voice of the band's lead vocalist, Shawn Christensen, mimics the excited squeals and enthusiastic wails of Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure.
Before they became an '80s revival pop band, however, stellastrarr*'s members were all art students. Between the four, they studied acting, graphic design, illustration and painting but, interestingly, not music. Perhaps their name, properly spelled with an asterisk at the end, is a byproduct of Graphic Design 101.
Although the members of stellastarr* still practice other artistic trades, the band has become more than just a side project. Stellastarr* has created a following in the New York club scene and is now in Europe on a publicity tour for .
best songs are \Homeland"" and ""In The Walls."" The song ""Homeland"" volleys between quiet guitar riffs and rambunctious full-bodied crescendos, with sudden but smooth transitions. Similarly, in ""In The Walls"" the guitar line softly forewarns danger and is answered by charging drums. The lyrics complete an image of doom with lines like, ""It took awhile, for me to know that I am not alone.""
For much of the album, however, stellastarr* limits their lyrics to the conventional topic of relationships and the results are sometimes disappointingly simple. Many of the songs sound like only slightly modified versions of other songs on the album. The worst the listener has to fear, however, are painful moments when duets between Christensen and Amanda Tannen threaten to imitate the B-52's.
The listener who just really wants to feel like '80s music is fresh and alive again, however, may easily overlook these as only minor faults. For these people, may be just the indulgence they have been waiting for.
