The Starlings “Marveling The While” (Independent, 2008)

Marvellous second album of folk-plus-country from Seattle stars

Seattle’s Starlings second album is that ava raris, a work has the musical development so beloved of critics and reviewers while retaining the sound and style of their debut to keep fans who know what they like happy. That said, “Marveling The While” is older music, with more of a sense of time passing and regret and the opening song, the philosophically musing and world weary “Love and War”, may come as something of a surprise as it sounds unlike anything they’ve recorded before. The band move quickly on to more familiar territory with the desolate “Empty Boxcar” (“My heart’s an outlaw that beats a narrow beat”) before hitting the superlative narrative tale of searching and disappearance that is “Geraldine”.

Driven along by songwriter-in-chief Joy Mills regretful vocals (with guitarist Tom Parker taking the odd song for variety) all the band harmonise and swing with effortless ease and grace and create a beautiful blend of folk and classic rural country. The sweetly swinging “Sliver Thread” belies its lyrics, they manage to make the endless mid-western plains sound exotic in “Iowa” and they keep the spirit of Hank and The Carter Family alive in the back porch “Back To The Land.” There’s even the occasional hint of Australia’s finest The Waifs, notably on Ghost Town where Mills’ feisty vocals recall Vikki Thorn. Their “musician” song “If I’d Ever Change” is also one of the better ones, recognising as it does the inevitably transient nature of their work (“All profound and pointless things I say/Will simultaneously slip away”).

They end with the unrequited longing and regret of “Darkest Hour Of Night” but the only regret “Marveling The While” inspires is the absence of a few gigs on this side of the water as it is truly marvellous music.

Date review added:  Monday, May 05, 2008
Reviewer:  Jeremy Searle
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  The Starlings website