Starbag
Self-titled CD
Ghost
Battery Records / Happy
Happy Birthday To Me
Genres: indie pop, country rock, indie rock
HHBTM
PO Box 1035
Panama City, FL
32402
Dec 8 - 14 2003 |
You
don't get anything groundbreaking here, but there's no reason to
complain either. This relatively obscure Texas four play a fun,
infectious country-pop with just as much of a Sparklehorse sensibility
in their sound as there is Western twang. For instance, "I
Just Can't Wait" has a significant amount of pedal steel
involved, but is kept "pop" by way of some danged infectious
hooks and those delicately gliding, It's a Wonderful Life-esque
vocals.
"So Long, Farewell" and "My Big Secret,"
meanwhile, are exactly the type of perfect pop ditties you've come to
expect from the consistently solid Happy Happy Birthday To Me
roster. The latter is one of the eight-track album's best; its
smooth, breathtaking stretches of pedal steel wrap the listener up in
a blanket of foamy Mercury Rev-cum-Nashville pop hooks.
Although Starbag don't appear to have anything special going
on at first (poorly-designed, eight-song albums aren't exactly a
rarity these days), you listen to an album like this one - or even
just one song, like the joyously uplifting "Take It From
Here," which adds a bit of a folk-pop tinge to the record - and
you know you're on to something good. At this point, Starbag
looks like they're at the start of what could be a long, exciting
existence. I'm listening.
86%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 8 tracks, distributed by HHBTM, released 2003] |
