Grace Hotel
  Overall rating:  ++++

Album Reviews

Every issue of Lollipop, I have the pleasure of discovering one or two records that'll occupy my stereo for years to come. More often than not, they've been polished, layered, crafted pop records. I am freakishly happy to say that Everybody Makes Mistakes is one of these records. Do not be alarmed. Just because Tooth & Nail released it doesn't mean it's any less serious pop than Scott Walker. Starflyer 59 is perhaps the only formidable entity to be able to stand up against overseas giants like My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead. It is the cynicism of "knowing better," the soundscapes of New Order, and the dreariness of The Smiths, all rolled into one unique palate. It utilizes poetic freedom and gives tongue-in-cheek references during random parts of the songs (musically - check out the pseudo-country intro of "My Name"), but somehow never forgets that the songs must be good to begin with. While snidely crooning sarcasm such as "we write the songs you like in half the time" ("Play the C Chord") or "No More Shows," Starflyer 59 still punctures the listener's emotional defense shield with yearning vocals, slithering melodies, and face-in-hands tragedy that's all too beautiful. During "20 Dollar Bills," "Just Try," or "The Party," it becomes increasingly difficult not to imagine an elongated death scene in a romance movie. The slow-paced, warm atmosphere of the songs provide a sense of tiredness that engulfs you, making you feel every inch of the singer's burden. Subtlety, they say, can sometimes be more overbearing. It seems that Starflyer 59 has learned it well (by themselves or from Radiohead). Everybody Makes Mistakes is a beautiful, moving record that will train you in the arts of sarcasm and emotional hardships. And you'll love not being able to get up after it has finished with you.  

~ Tim Den

The strongest release yet from this criminally overlooked critics' favorite...? Though initially putting their foot on the pedal of a more surreal haze of abstract guitar distortion, over the years Starflyer 59 has slowly transformed into a pure pop band. This transformation was at times unsteady and difficult to adjust to...but upon hearing Everybody Makes Mistakes I am once again taken hook, line, and sinker into this band's wonderfully "real" pop music. It is soft...dreamy...plain...sincere...all the things that are so often sadly missing in modern pop. This super solid release features confident heady soft rockers like "Play the C Chord," "Dollar Bills," "The Party," and "Just Try"...but it is actually the piano-based "No New Kinda Story" that hooks our fevered hosts the most. Very reminiscent of great eighties pop, these compositions are easy. It works. The band's current pop is offset splendidly by the slight presence of something just ever so slighty peculiar lurking behind the curtains. Isn't this a nice way to end the 1900s?

~ Babysue

A few seconds into "Play the C Chord," the first cut off the new album from OC’s famously dreamy Starflyer 59, you think they’re going to go off and do something different besides their usual airy stuff, since the track starts with these chunky, deep-bottomed drum kicks and this Duane Eddy-style geetar twang. But then the bass lets up, singer Jason Martin’s sleepy voice moves in, and things casually dissolve into their familiar shoegazer terrain. On Everybody Makes Mistakes, the band’s take on this old genre (let it be known that ’90s nostalgia has officially begun)—best described as the Jesus & Mary Chain with a heart that pumps My Bloody Valentine—feels dated at worst. But if you stick to doing something long enough, you’ll eventually become an expert—as Starflyer have. There’s a brooding, spacy quality to their songs that’s endearing, like what big, white poofy clouds rolling across the sky might sound like if they were caught on audiotape. That’s what’s here, mostly, though the band does pick things up a bit on tracks like "No New Kinda Story," which sounds like the closest thing to a radio hit—a 1988 radio hit. They rock out a little more on "No More Shows," something you can actually dance to. But on the downside, stuff like "20 Dollar Bills"—an over-the-top slice of prettiness laden with piano, harp (not harmonica) and string effects —is too lush to swallow. "Just Try" could work as an aural sleeping pill; you almost want to slap Martin across his mug and yell at him to wake up (he doesn’t help much with his "just try to stay awake" line, which feels like he’s actually daring you). As for Martin’s lyrics, almost everything on Mistakes is completely incomprehensible, since he sings in what seems like a constant exhale ("A Dethroned King" just has to be in another language). But Starflyer have always seemed more interested in atmosphere and feeling than getting any lyrics across. For that, it’s a good disc—if you’re into Sominex-laced oxygen rock. Just don’t play it while operating heavy machinery.

~ Rich Kane