Starsailor – On The Outside

Artist: Starsailor

Title: On The Outside

Label: EMI

Rating: 6/10

CORPORATE LINE: Starsailor return with their third album, ‘On The Outside’. Both their previous two albums have now sold in excess of 1.5 million copies worldwide and on the last campaign they hit number one in the French singles chart with ‘Four To The Floor’. Starsailor never stopped working, they continuously toured, only pausing to write and record their new album, and in the process have created an impassioned statement, a record of real honesty and urgency. Much of the record was recorded live which has aided the directness and captured the passion. Galvanised like never before, the band have produced their best work to date. Featuring the fantastic comeback single ‘In The Crossfire’, the band’s new album ‘On The Outside’ was produced by Rob Schnapf (Beck, The Vines, Elliott Smith) and looks set to take the band to the new heights they deserve.

THE GOOD:
“In The Crossfire” – Whether “In The Crossfire” is a good song or means anything is actually insignificant considering you will be singing along to “I don’t see myself when I look in the mirror/I see who I should be”. It’s another song about a band coming to terms with being famous—we can’t relate since Starsailor aren’t famous or successful in America.

THE AVERAGE:
“In My Blood” – Instead of sounding like a cool modern day rock band Starsailor comes off as a bad Journey rip-off band.
“I Don’t Know” – Starsailor tries to jam in three minutes flat but can’t achieve the coolness of Gomez.

THE BAD:
“Faith Hope Love” – “Tired of living in this modern land” isn’t a lyric you can take seriously. It’s hokey and quite frankly laughable.
“Get Out While You Can” – As torturous and boring as ever there was a song on a Starsailor album.
“This Time” – “I won’t let it kill me this time” is pure drivel.

FRANKLY: Starsailor’s On The Outside is another album by a British rock band that hasn’t quite found their own sound so they have committed to sounding like others. The one plus is that Starsailor isn’t trying to be Radiohead or Coldplay—instead they’ve opted to be a sissy-boy’s Manic Street Preachers. Even worse, there are no great songs such as “Silence Is Easy” to make the rest of the album go down easier.

+ Rae Gun