The post-punk revival of the last decade and a half has produced no shortage of popular and under-the-radar bands alike.\u00a0 While The Strokes and Interpol have dominated the airwaves, other bands with quirkily formatted names like stellastarr* continue to achieve moderate success, too.\u00a0 Following their self-titled debut, stellastarr* released Harmonies For The Haunted<\/i>, a tribute to the misery of broken love. <\/p>\n
Shawn Christensen\u2019s flamboyant vocal style, in the vein of fellow post-punker Brandon Flowers of The Killers, is unique enough to command your attention throughout.\u00a0 For the majority of the album, his antics fit the context, but other times it feels forced and does nothing but annoy the listener.\u00a0 Bassist Amanda Tannen, meanwhile, positively shines as a backing vocalist for most of the album, save a hiccup or two, as in the flatly executed \u201cDamn This Foolish Heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly, the strength of the album lies at the front of the album:\u00a0 a delicate piano introduction crescendos into an ethereal, reverberating guitar and faintly tragic lyrics in opener \u201cLost In Time.\u201d Harmonies<\/i>\u2019 true highlights, however, come with tracks three and four.\u00a0 \u201cThe Diver\u201d ebbs and flows back and forth between reserved verses and an energetic chorus amidst a ghostly demeanor befitting the album\u2019s title.\u00a0 The song\u2019s climax over the final minute is something to behold, when all of the band\u2019s characteristics simultaneously seem to peak.<\/p>\n
Single \u201cSweet Troubled Soul\u201d follows, immediately luring the listener with the catchiest of repeating hooks on guitar, a prominent and coercive bassline, lots and lots of wailing, and the occasional sensual, hopelessly desperate lyric (\u201cI want to suffer in your arms\u201d and \u201cI want to see your face \/ In the reflection of my bedroom stereo\u201d).\u00a0 True, much of the song is so very clich\u00e9, but stellastarr* executes it so deliciously well that you have no choice but to love it.<\/p>\n
Alas, the momentum established thus far does not sustain itself, as the album descends into repetitiveness and predictability.\u00a0 You certainly can\u2019t quibble with the polish and technical soundness of the band, but when half of the song continually repeats themes and lyrics (especially \u201cBorn In A Fleamarket\u201d and \u201cStay Entertained\u201d), you can\u2019t help but roll your eyes.\u00a0 The album begins to close strongly with slow-burning \u201cIsland Lost At Sea,\u201d but any ground made up at this point is lost, when hidden track \u201cBloated Wife\u201d (apparently stellastarr*\u2019s first ever composition) makes an appearance.\u00a0 The instrumentals are intriguing enough, but I think it was here that Christensen\u2019s trembling vocals irritated me beyond my breaking point.<\/p>\n
Harmonies For The Haunted<\/i> had potential.\u00a0 It really did.\u00a0 After putting their best foot forward in the first 15 minutes of the album, stellastarr* in large part could not conjure enough fresh and consistently entertaining material to make Harmonies<\/i> little more than a two-hit wonder with creepily awesome album art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8695],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-42308","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stellastarr","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42308"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}