BTV068 Starflyer 59 : Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice LP

Starflyer 59
“Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice” (btv068)
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Track listing:
1 The Contest Completed
2 Easy Street
3 Good Sons
4 A List Goes On
5 Night Life
6 Good Living
7 Softness Goodness
8 Something Evil
9 Longest Line

For their ninth full-length album, California’s Starflyer 59 pick up where 2003’s Old left off, creating their most orchestrated release to date in Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice. It is lush and pop, incorporating a wide range of sounds from the very prominent string arrangements and tasteful inclusion of vocoder effects to dark and dreamy prog synths and some very danceable drum beats. Here, Starflyer 59 founder and mainstay Jason Martin collaborates with drummer/multi-instrumentalist Frank Lenz to create the swan song of his career. The songs channel New Order and Swervedriver with the breathy poppiness of The Smiths, yet Martin and Lenz own these songs.

From their 1993 Silver lo-fi debut, Starflyer 59 have quietly been keeping the shoegazer flame burning for those in the know. With Silver, Gold, and Americana, the band explored the depths of noisy guitar rock, letting off to find their pop sensibilities through The Fashion Focus, Everybody Makes Mistakes, and Leave Here a Stranger. Vinyl versions of The Fashion Focus and Everybody Makes Mistakes on Burnt Toast Vinyl both as LPs with bonus 7” (now out of print). Starflyer 59 briefly visited their old school guitar rockers by way of the exclusive btv one-sided LP Portuguese Blues and related cd-full length I Am the Portuguese Blues.

The perfectly poppy Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice sounds alive on the vinyl version, offered upon red wax.