Slow

Description

Slow is the fourteenth full-length studio album by the American indie rock band Starflyer 59, released on Tooth & Nail Records in June 2016.

I first heard Starflyer 59 on a tribute album to Steve Taylor. Yes, a musician most people have never heard of garnered a tribute album full of performances by bands most people have never heard of. But my abiding love for Taylor led me to pick up I Predict a Clone, which introduced me to all kinds of artists I’d never heard. Circle of Dust, for example, led off the record with a killer version of «Am I In Sync», and now here I am buying the remastered reissues of all of the CoD albums, having followed the band’s mastermind Klayton into his new incarnation as Celldweller.

Sitting at track three was the strangest take on «Sin for a Season», all impossibly thick guitars, crawling drums and a voice like a baritone whisper. I’m not sure I knew shoegaze when I heard it back then, but this was shoegaze so heavy you could measure it in tons. This was Starflyer 59, led by Jason Martin, and their immortal 1994 debut album (self-titled, but always called Silver) was more of the same. Snail’s-pace songs, what sounds like hundreds of guitars playing the same riff, Martin’s barely-there voice, an album so heavy you can’t lift it.

Twenty-two years later, I remain amazed at the continued existence and quality of Starflyer 59. Jason Martin is the sole member of the band, working with a rotating cast, and over 14 albums, 8 EPs and a pair of box sets, he’s led Starflyer on a merry dance through synth-colored pop, atmospheric melancholia, acoustic folk and straight-up rock. No two Starflyer records sound the same, but all of them are worth hearing. Listen to them all in a row and you’ll have no choicee but to admit that Jason Martin is an unheralded superstar, a songwriter and musician who really should be a lot more well-known.

The fact that he isn’t lends each new Starflyer album an air of the miraculous. In 2013, Martin went it alone, turning to crowdfunding to create IAMACEO, SF59’s punchy 13th full-length, and despite its apparent success, I figured that would be the last we’d see of him. But amazingly, here he is again with album 14, back on Tooth and Nail Records, and I hope this means a nice new contract and many more Starflyer platters. I’m especially excited because Slow, that 14th album, is excellent. As per usual with Starflyer albums, my only complaint is this: it’s too short.

Even by Starflyer standards, Slow seems brief: its eight songs last only 32 minutes. But it is a full emotional journey. The title track lives up to its name, inching forward like a ‘50s ballad, all ringing piano chords and reverb, Martin singing of time passing by: “My kids they grow up fast, I want it slow, so slow…” The record really kicks in with «Told Me So», a superb ‘80s indie rocker with a tremendous guitar riff, and explodes with «Cherokee», a skipping powerhouse that reminds me of early Cure albums. Martin’s crack band this time is bassist Steve Dail and drummer Trey Many, and as a trio, they kill it here. Martin’s voice hasn’t changed – it’s still lower than low, half-spoken, eerie and unsettling.

«Wrongtime» doubles down on the Cure influence, this time taking from the Disintegration era with its propulsive bass lines and clean guitar melodies. Speaking as someone who can’t get enough of this particular sound, this one’s a delight. «Retired» feels like a statement on Martin’s age and the state of his band: “I used to be the MVP, I used to be the center of a scene, I used to be the funny one, I used to be the setting sun, it’s tough to be retired when there’s so much left to do…” As if to prove how much he still has in him, he then hits us with «Runaround», the loudest and fastest thing here, and then slides into home with «Numb», a dark tale of slipping away: “Was it really better back then, were there really less problems, or was it really that because then you weren’t so numb…”

Slow is short, but it doesn’t feel that way. Its eight songs are among Jason Martin’s strongest, and as a full album, it’s among his best. More than two decades after first hearing them, I remain grateful that Starflyer 59 is still a going concern. Slow is another terrific Starflyer album in a long line of them. I’m never sure I’m going to get another one, so I try to savor each one. I hope Martin means it when he says it’s tough to be retired. He’s too wonderful to stay quiet. Long live Starflyer 59, I say. [Andre Salles, Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., June 2016]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/slow/1104607600)

CD tracklist:

01. Slow – 5:13
02. Told Me So – 3:30
03. Cherokee – 3:48
04. Hi Low – 4:42
05. Wrongtime – 4:30
06. Retired – 3:20
07. Runaround – 2:23
08. Numb – 4:41

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