Starsailor - 'Silence Is Easy' (EMI) Released 15/09/03

First time around, Starsailor were full of grand statements. LOVE IS HERE! they said which we were inclined to believe on supping their vulnerable yet defiant brew, spoken straight from the heart.

Now they’re back claiming that silence is easy which would seem to tally with their growing confidence and couldn’t give a shit philosophy. Comeback offering Silence Is Easy is one of the Phil Spector produced tracks but it is James Walsh’s vocals that stamp their mark on the song. Cramming a giant gobstopper into the traps of his doubters, Walsh breathes courage into hearts and buckles knees. Future single Music Was Saved has a lot to live up to, but with tongue placed firmly in cheek, it relishes the challenge: a gloriously swaggering melody that wears bells on it’s fingers and toes. Ever tried dancing to Starsailor? Hah! ridiculous..it is for the express purposes of intense brooding. Not if Four To The Floor has owt to do with it with its message of forgetting your troubles and having a good time. Before you know it, the James Bond string section, colossal vocal and slinky beat will have you twirling and whirling like a disco kid. In stark contrast the repetitive Shark Food weaves a stifling web of paranoia, fittingly produced by John Leckie (Radiohead). It’s a self-contained world that will have you running in circles, looking over your shoulder and checking you own reflection. Love Is Here was written from the perspective of four aspirational pub go-ers. Now known as Starsailor, they have evidently matured, strengthened in identity and describe their songs as “less muddy”..which is fine but since when did a little dirt do anyone any harm?