review by: Dave McGonigle

It’s easy to get depressed in the lonely, maudlin world of music criticism. Before you know it, your entire day consists of sitting in pajamas in your front room, eating Cap’n Crunch with one hand while you spellcheck “mellifluous” with the other. Meanwhile, your mailbox is filling up with brown envelopes of CDs like a bad scene from “Fantasia,” your neighbors are waiting outside your door with pitchforks due to the noise pollution, and you can’t remember the last time you spoke to another living soul. Ho-hum….

So it’s great when a band acknowledges that you actually exist, and tries to assist you through the long night of soul that is the review process. For example, take the title of Starflyer 59’s new disc, Old. It’s pun-tastic! It almost writes the copy itself - just imagine the conversations up and down the land: “Yeah, I really liked the new Starflyer album, but it got ‘Old’ real quick.”

Or perhaps “Dude! Can I get a copy of the new Starflyer 59 album, Old?”

Jah, even “I liked their old stuff, but not the stuff on Old.”

Bad jokes aside (and believe me, I spared you the worst ones), this is yet another minor rock masterpiece from SF59. The band has been churning out good records to a spectacularly non-interested public since their self-titled debut in the early nineties.

From the early shoegazer stylings of Silver to their last, the 60s’-influenced Leave Here a Stranger, SF59 have often sounded like a band unsure exactly what they’re meant to sound like. Taken as a series, their records read like the indie version of the punctuated equilibrium theory of evolution - sudden, violent shifts in style for every disc, dinosaurs turning into birds without checking if it’ll give people headaches a few billion years down the line.

The one thing that has been constant in their sound has been frontman Jason Martin’s seemingly effortless way with a classic pop tune. His gradual maturation as a songwriter has made each new SF59 album worth checking out, even though it’s even money whether the actual sound will resemble My Bloody Valentine, New Order, or even Brian Wilson (pre-sandbox version).

On Old, Martin has dipped deep into his musical time-machine again, and this time the controls are set for the heart of the 70s; the 70s of FM radio, hand claps on choruses and analog synths. He’s also resurrected that ancient 70s chestnut the concept album - y’see, the album’s called Old, right, with song titles like “Underneath,” “Old,” “First Heart Attack” (Do you get it? The titles are related to the Album title! Dude…)

Thankfully, it’s pretty good. Album opener “Underneath” features clean arpeggiated picking that blossoms into crunching fuzz on the chorus, Martin intoning, “just when you feel alive, you go underneath” as the band forces the song to become a weird honky-tonk cover version of itself. It’s a great opener, a dark, driving song that shows that Martin can make almost anything sound worthy of our attention, no matter how clichéd it might be (“Major Awards” has him shrugging his shoulders, admitting, “there’s no big time coming, I think the secret’s out”).

It all chugs along pleasantly until the final cut, “First Heart Attack,” which finishes with a weird sample of someone discussing their blood pressure until the band cuts out with a frenzied “stop!” On the strength of this album, I really hope they don’t. (8.2/10)