Fever EP - Starsailor

Starsailor are really quite jammy. The title track of Starsailor’s first EP, “Fever”, was a somewhat fitting name for the song. The track caused A&R men to go into frenzy, waving around tours, airtime and (inevitably) chequebooks at the young band from Wigan, with hoards of people calling them “the next big thing”. The band scored a first in modern times by bringing the somewhat out-of-vogue sounds of indie and alternative country to the ears of millions on their first commercial release. The band got well into the top twenty with this release and found themselves on “Top of the Pops” – a feat for any band ...  Read the complete review

I always chuckle to myself when I read A&R people in a race to sign the next big thing before they have recorded anything. If you read any of the music magazines Starsailor have been lauded as the new Coldplay. Whether this is a complement or not is not obvious because while Coldplay are undoubtedly talented they are far from the finished article. The Fever e.p. is released on Chrysalis records and I’m afraid as debuts go this is banal stuff. It is bleak, slightly unintended Muse like, a plodding journey over 3 tracks almost devoid of any sort of melody to make it memorable. The sleeve of the version of the single I have reads as follows: ...  Read the complete review

Starsailor are a young four-piece band from Wigan. The lead signer and front man James Walsh is a huge Tim Buckley fan who actually recorded an album called Starsailor. They have a keyboardist as opposed to a second guitarist which like Kula Shaker used creates a beautiful sound. The band got to the number '18' in the charts with this release and found themselves on Top of the Pops. This is quite a remarkable feat considering they are not manufactured and had only played a small number of gigs at tiny venues prior to this. The songs on this EP were recorded as demos in summer 2000 and were heard by record companies and helped them to get a ...  Read the complete review

I bought this because it had reached a respectable 18 on the charts and that they were supposed to be the next Coldplay/Travis/Radiohead. I was very disappointed. The lead singer has the most depressingly annoying voice in the planet and the songs lack the beauty of Coldplay or the integrity of Radiohead. Not only do they sound sparse, but they also sound arrogantly dull. Love Is Here is moderately good, and it is surprising that this isn't the title of the EP instead of the boring Fever track. Avoid this EP and hope their debut album will be better. ...  Read the complete review