Starsailor

This English quartet has always distinguished itself by its sound and this time round it’s all about resonating subtleties and understated melodies. The faint tremor of James Walsh’s wafting vocals splendidly brings out the flavour of melancholy on All the Plans. The band seems to have found level ground and doesn’t need noise epics to help it stand. Unlike ambitious attempts on Silence is Easy (2003) with ”˜Four to the Floor’ and on On the Outside (2005) with ”˜In the Crossfire,’ All the Plans fosters an engaging simplicity, a sign that the band is getting comfortable in its skin. ”˜Tell Me It’s Not Over’ has been pushed as the album’s opening single, and it makes a fair case for itself with a swell piano-guitar based composition. The lyrics whiplash with the wit and spite reserved for a deceitful lover: “What a place to seal your fate/A deserted car park not even a date”¦Now the lights out/I discover/Just a weekend/Undercover.” ”˜The Thames’ is all spy-thriller hooks, the wicked bass line is analogous to the film score of a Tarantino flick, but then Walsh’s dulcet vocals step in and we head back home. On ”˜Stars and Stripes,’ where the Englishman takes pot shots at an imperialist America, his sarcasm stings – “Stars and stripes/Keep you warm at night/Keep those evil empires from your door”¦fairytale/A nation up for sale/Selling San Francisco oh so well”¦put your bullets down now/I implore.” Starsailor has the ingredients for a near-perfect piano-rock album, if only they’d put it all together well. These sailors aren’t rocking their boat yet.