Starflyer 59 Album Recommendations: "Everybody Makes Mistakes"

Album Recommendations: Everybody Makes Mistakes

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Starflyer 59

[#] Everybody Makes Mistakes (1999)

Singable cynicism.

Reviewed June 22, 2024

"We write the songs you like/In half the time", Jason Martin drones on Everybody Makes Mistakes' opener "Play the C Chord"—the other half of that refrain being "like it's something new". Every Starflyer album seems to come with its own flavor of engulfing cynicism, but that for music and the record industry sums half the catalog up, and it gets its start here on Everybody Makes Mistakes. You imagine, five albums in, the obstinately introverted, modest Martin, already having been through years of touring and interviews, two lineup changes, a flop album that became a beloved one, and the continued lack of breakthrough success despite an extensive catalog of alt-pop gems, has a certain viewpoint on music, but whatever that is, he thankfully doesn't let it bring his songwriting talents or performances down.

Everybody Makes Mistakes is rarely described as it is, the sonic bridge between the new wave synth-acoustic shininess of The Fashion Focus and the gentle, nocturnal meditation on making music that is Leave Here a Stranger. Pseudo-single "No New Kinda Story" leads with bright synth string swells and a four-on-the-floor drum machine pattern a la "I Drive a Lot", and the grainy, distorted riffs and bluesy leads on "No More Shows" and "A Dethroned King" bring to mind the shitkickin' Fashion Focus favorite "The Birthrite". On the other end of the spectrum, "The Party" suggests the hazy grandeur Starflyer would soon conjure on the climax of Stranger, "I Like Your Photographs". All of this reads like a band in flux, and, well, if you've read the Easy Come Easy Go booklet, they certainly were, but Mr. Martin always brings a lovely batch of catchy, unassuming tunes with him wherever he goes, and this outing is no different.