CATEGORY: Editor's Pick - Music Reviews

With their debut album Devestator, the Chicago rock band Star have written and recorded what appears to be an alternate soundtrack to the 2003 indie flick Lost in Translation.

The record’s twelve pop songs are so rich with atmosphere and mood that images of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson laying in a hotel bed staring sadly at the ceiling might invade your imagination. This emphasis on texture & mood also turns one of the band’s potential weaknesses into a strength- singer Shannon Roberts’ reverb-drenched, indecipherable vocals fit right in here, avoiding the trap of becoming distracting. Behind Roberts’ light bursts of air, her bandmates Theodore Beck (bass/beats) and Scott Cortez (guitar) let their instruments echo and fuzz until they have formed a giant, slow moving wall of sound. This simple formula is the band’s successful foundation and they stick to it faithfully throughout the album.

In the end, if a few of the songs on Devestator sound a little similar it is because they are. However, people shouldn’t criticize Star for lack of variety; the mood and textures of their great walls of sound are what make Devestator a worthwhile trip. If the album had been released in 2002 perhaps Mrs. Sophia Coppola might have been tempted to steal it for her own exercise in mood & isolation.

http://www.myspace.com/lovelyrebelrecords

MP3s
Switchblade Heart
Pure Gold Reason