Starflyer 59 Album Recommendations: "My Island"

Album Recommendations: My Island

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

[#] My Island (2006)

Give the bassist some.

Reviewed July 9, 2024

Starflyer runs in stages. Heavy, angsty stage. Shiny new wave stage. Luscious, gentle, cynical stage. 2006, ten (!) albums in, it was time for a new one, and seemingly the most commercially canny yet. The mid-2000s were ripe times for the so-called "post-punk revival", bands like The Killers, the Strokes, and the Arctic Monkeys that played stripped down, "legit", often danceable rock music and really didn't have a lot in common otherwise. My Island adopts a lot of the characteristics of the post-punk revival, with the heavy drums, the faster tempos, the emphasis on the bass, but regardless of what it might've done for Starflyer's chart prospects (not a lot), it comes away one of the catchiest and most unique albums in their long line of them.

My Island sees the debut of longtime Starflyer bassist Steven Dail, and he owns this album as far as I'm concerned. His lines are melodic ("Nice Guy", "Division"), spiky ("Mic the Mic"), and occasionally even groovy ("It's Alright Blondie"), and where a lot of Starflyer records coast dreamily, these songs often rush towards their finish lines. Where it avoids commercial crassness isn't just in Jason Martin's consistently excellent songwriting, but also his wide-reaching sonic influences. The synth orchestras pop up plenty on songs like "Nice Guy", and his longtime interest in surf rock (seen back on Gold, even) means the sorta springy, bouncy indie rock fittingly featured on the title track is absolutely in his wheelhouse. The beach hasn't improved his lyrical outlook on his talents or the biz much, but that's only because we've all been sleeping on his band. Go listen.