Even though folk singer Tim Buckley’s 1970 avant-folk album Starsailor (Elektra) is long out of print, the Wigan quartet Starsailor are poised to make its title a household name in the realm of pop. The band, who feature three avowed Nick Drake fans and a keyboard player who favors jazz, met in music school and were christened "the best new band in Britain" by NME last April on the strength of two Top 20 British singles — "Fever" and "Good Souls." Their debut full-length, Love Is Here (Capitol), entered the British charts at #2 last October; that led to "Best New Act" honors at the Q magazine awards.
Such instant success and adoration isn’t uncommon in England: just a year earlier, fellow mellow Brit-poppers Coldplay were the subjects of a similar lovefest. And to a certain degree, Starsailor look and sound a lot like this year’s Coldplay. For starters, they share Coldplay’s penchant for earnest, falsetto vocals that bring to mind Tim Buckley’s son Jeff and Radiohead head Thom Yorke. And moodiness, midtempo songs, and strum-and-drone acoustic guitars are a primary ingredient in both bands. Indeed, the uplifting lyrics and the soaring, melodic choruses of Starsailor’s first US single, "Good Souls," bring to mind Coldplay’s breakthrough hit "Yellow." And as if to prove that the cult of Starsailor has already established a solid beachhead in the US, the Boston Brit-pop fans who packed the Paradise for the group’s brief opening set at the Charlatans UK gig a week ago Monday were already mouthing the words and singing along to the tunes from Love Is Here, an album that Capitol had released only a few weeks prior.
But though Coldplay rely heavily on a delicate dreaminess that borders on uncertainty, Starsailor come across as a confident bunch on Love Is Here. Singer/guitarist James Walsh belts out straightforward lyrics with a panache that brings to mind the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft, mixing frustration and determination to complement strident strumming. The strength of the disc is in its directness — no fancy metaphors or complex solos, just classic songs about heartbreak and longing. But it does lack diversity: similar tempos and riffs abound, so that it’s hard to tell one song from the next.
Fortunately, the band weren’t afraid to shake up some of their material live. "Tie Up My Hands" slowed to an ominous tempo punctuated by shards of guitar, in a way that underscored the anguish of the lyrics. "Love Is Here" and "Alcoholic" featured jazzy piano interludes that showcased the talents of keyboardist Barry Westhead. And little flourishes — Walsh’s Neil Youngish harmonica turn at the end of "She Just Wept," and his insertion of snippets of Randy Newman’s "Sail Away" at the end of "Coming Down" — added a playful element of surprise.
After being marked as the dreaded "Next big thing" in England and then shipped off to America with no idea of what to expect, Starsailor seem to be holding their own at least as well as, if not better than, the more insular Coldplay did around this time last year. Much of their confidence emanates from Walsh, who at 21 possesses the right mix of arrogance and humility to navigate the rocky road to the top of the pops here in the US. When I caught up with him on the phone after a recent LA show that brought legendary producer Phil Spector out to offer his services to the band, he seemed genuinely awed by the experience.
"It was pretty surreal," he recounts of the encounter that ended with the band’s being invited back to Spector’s house. "He lives in this huge kind of castle, and we’ve heard all these stories about him being this mad eccentric, and luckily he was really on form. I got to hold the guitar that John Lennon gave to Phil Spector as a gift, that was pretty incredible. But [as far as recording with him goes], nothing’s set in stone. We don’t want to be pressured into doing something because he’s such a renowned producer. But if it’s what’s right for the band, it’s not something we’d rule out."
