Starsailor shares new single “Dead On The Money”, “a song about being broke but full of hope” says Walsh, “Although I also like the fact that it means exactly the right thing. Like knowing deep down that you are on the right path even if the recovery is slow.” It is the opening song of the upcoming new album. Where wild things growwhich launches on March 22.
Last October, Starsailor announced its return with Where wild things growthe title track from their first album in six years, produced by Rick McNamara and scheduled for release on March 22, 2024. They quickly followed this with Heavyweight and the announcement of a March/April tour.
Formed in and around Wigan at the turn of the millennium and featuring James Walsh (guitar, vocals), James Stelfox (bass), Barry Westhead (keyboards) and Ben Byrne (drums), Starsailor have released five albums to date, including love is here in 2001, Silence is easy in 2003, Abroad in 2005, All plans in 2009 and all this life in 2017. A greatest hits compilation titled Good Souls: The Greatest Hits appeared in 2015, featuring her ten Top Forty singles in the UK to date, including her biggest hit, “Silence Is Easy”, which peaked at number 9 in 2003.
Listen to 'Dead On The Money' – BELOW:
On the new album, Starsailor gallops through a record of astonishing complexity: the folk-tinged “Flowers” (which features a stunning lap steel from Spritualized's Tony 'Doggen' Foster) was inspired by a documentary about a flower seller in Aleppo that “he simply continued setting up his stand, despite the bombs exploding around him, dedicated to providing a small haven of beauty during such a devastating time”; “Enough (I Should Be Home By Now)” has a groovy, billowy mid-Atlantic quality that recalls the Eagles' finest moments; and “After The Rain” – (with slide guitar by the aforementioned Foster, “The happiest song we have been able to compose, simply a lovely process” – was inspired by The Band, Crosby Stills and Nash, and the Laurel Canyon scene.
Themes of love and hope appear throughout the album: on “Hard Love”, Walsh reflects on the simplicity of single life compared to the complications and variety of emotions of a relationship. Spoiler alert, she sides with the relationship, if it's with the right person, while “Hanging In The Balance” is about that delicate moment, “The early stages of a relationship, when it starts to get real and you're on the precipice between it becoming something life-changing or you both going your separate ways.” Best of all is “Where Wild Things Grow.” “I wrote it in my old apartment at night.” says Walsh, which has that slightly uncomfortable, otherworldly feel reminiscent of those early Bowie or Pink Floyd recordings. “I could hear the pipes creaking. She was thinking about the art of Radiohead by Maurice Sendak and Stanley Donwood. There's an early Ed Harcourt song called 'Beneath The Heart Of Darkness' that's also an influence. The haunting darkness of another world.”
Where wild things grow – the album – features additional guitar work by Rick McNamara's Tony “Doggen” Foster and Travis' Andy Dunlop and backing vocals by Lucy Joules (Sam Smith). Rick, who produced the album, is now unofficially “the fifth Starsailor” or, as Walsh puts it, “Another creative in the room who really cares about the songs and pushes us to the limit.”
Over the past two decades, Starsailor has been compared to everyone from Neil Young and Van Morrison to Wigan compatriots. The Verve – Walsh cites the latter's welcome show to 33,000 people at Haigh Hall on 24 May 1998 as an eye-opening experience – although, at the same time, perhaps we should add Tim and Jeff Buckley and Arcade Fire to that list increasingly debatable. Whatever your pronouncements on the matter, one thing is certain: Where wild things grow It stands up to honest analysis, repeated listens proving it reveals layer upon layer of casual observations and quiet reflections on the life to be loved and the love to be lived. It's also an album that has no right to be as good as it is, and yet here it is.
LIVE DATES
March 22 Warrington – Parr Hall United Kingdom
April 3 Birmingham – O2 Institute UK
April 4 Bristol – O2 Academy UK
April 5 Edinburgh – Queen's Hall United Kingdom
April 6 Sunderland – The UK Fire Station
April 8 Leeds – Brudenell presents UK
April 9 Brighton – Concorde 2 UK
April 11 Amsterdam – AmMelkweg OZ Netherlands
April 12 Brussels – La Madeleine Belgium
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