STELLABRANDSPANKINGFANTASTICSTARR,
i don’t care that it maybe could be described as derivative, unimiginitive, because it is all this and more, it is only unimiginitive if you yourself do not imagine that you have never heard anything like it before, because you haven’t, have you? so its brilliant

it works, the whole of it; the album, rarely, works as a whole, it can be listened all the way through and the stand out tracks, obviously “My Coco”, are not so far ahead of the snarling pack as to mark this as obviously blighted as say that single selling mechanism that is Hot Fuss, or even the mightlily overrated Franny Ferdinand.

Previous singles “Jenny” and “Somewhere Across Forever” revel in the Pixies punk-pop perfection with a crescendo of stop-start guitar hooks and twists, but this album firmly moves on from this 80’s reverie. its opener,”In The Walls”, with its gothic guitars, is a knowing mockery of the smiths and the cure, it would sound perfect in some swanseaic teenage bedroom, with black paint and eyeshadow, but it is when you actually here the music, rather than just listen to it, that you realise, that this is a denial of their influences and a firm f$ck you to their fans.

the bass driven savoyard/pop-funk of “A Million Reasons” takes the lead from savoyard/punk-funksters Hot Hot Heat, while the exhilarating “No Weather” is pure vintage-Ash. but again, i believe, rightly, that this is a snub to them, a musical anti-tribute that only the most foolish will take as hommage.

so hurray for them and the stellastarr will long remain upon my turning wheel of music, for it lasts and ages like some mad self refilling, ever aging, bottle of port wine, like a thing that gets better with age, like a maggot.