Young in My Head

Description

Young in My Head is the fifteenth full-length studio album by the American indie rock band Starflyer 59, released on Tooth & Nail Records in April 2019. In addition to Jason Martin on guitar and vocals, the album features keyboardist TW Walsh and bassist Steve Dail (with whom Martin plays in the band Lo Tom alongside David Bazan of Pedro the Lion), as well as Charlie on drums, Martin’s 16-year-old son.

Every new Starflyer 59 album feels like a gift.

It’s been 25 years since Jason Martin wrote «Blue Collar Love», the opening track on SF59’s astonishing debut album. This is a fact Martin reminds us of on Young in My Head, his band’s 15th (!) long-player, and each time I hear that line, it pulls me up short. I vividly remember discovering the first Starflyer album after stumbling across their entry on a Steve Taylor tribute, and getting lost inside it. The record with the solid silver cover is still a favorite – each time I play it, I forget how thick and powerful those guitar sounds are, and I’m blown away anew.

Martin has taken SF59 through several phases, moving away from the sludgy shoegaze of his earlier records into a more keyboard-driven indie-pop period with stopovers in new wave and straight-up rock. Latter-day Starflyer has been a mix of rock and Cure-like textures, and the new one is no exception. Jason Martin can really write a song, though, and after a quick sojourn with David Bazan in Lo Tom, he’s back here with ten more of them, each one a winner.

True to its title, Young in My Head is about growing old. He begins the album asking “Hey, Are You Listening,” which is a legitimate question 25 years in, and then gives us song after song about life passing by, and about disappointment and despair. In «Cry» he seemingly tries to outrun death: “Now I see it coming, coming behind my back, so I just started running, running to make it last…” «Remind Me», the song with the «Blue Collar Love» reference, finds Martin lamenting that his time is over: “I had my turn, stayed longer than most, longer than I should have…”

All of this feels like Martin telling us that Young in My Head is the last Starflyer album. But given how good it is, I sincerely hope that isn’t the case. There’s a lot on this album about hanging it up and just being with family – Martin’s 16-year-old son Charlie plays drums on this record – and I would never begrudge him that, if that’s what he wants. But as I listen to the ins and outs of this thing, especially a masterpiece like «Wicked Trick», I can’t help thinking that the world would be much poorer without new Starflyer 59 records every few years. I hope this isn’t the end, but if it is, it’s a strong last chapter. [Andre Salles, Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., April 30, 2019]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/young-in-my-head/1454305441)

CD tracklist:

01. Hey, Are You Listening? – 3:04
02. Young in My Head – 3:40
03. Not That I Want To – 3:34
04. Cry – 3:39
05. Remind Me – 3:37
06. Smoke – 3:49
07. Wicked Trick – 3:23
08. Junk – 3:14
09. Cain – 3:33
10. Crash – 3:22

Note: Simultaneously released on 12-inch vinyl LP and CD by Tooth & Nail Records.