Starsailor Love Is Here Lyrics

Although Love Is Here, Starsailor's anxious, soulful, folk-and-urban-blues-nuanced debut won't be a culture shock to any British pop-scene follower who experienced, say, Tom McRae's 2000 debut, it certainly jolts the core beliefs and common cultural values of the U.K. indie scene. Nothing about Starsailor is remotely "alternative"; cool dads will appreciate them every bit as much as the hip kids. Not only is tender-aged singer James Walsh proud to admit to being influenced by Van Morrison and Tim Buckley (blimey, it's like punk never happened), he is also gifted with a larynx as gnarled, emotionally articulate, and demonstratively tremulous as the underrated Roger Chapman. Love Is Here is an assured classic, whose exposition of impending mid-life crises and buttoned-up desperation (typical lyric: "I need to be alone while I suffer") is conveyed through shuffling jazz percussion, metronomic acoustic guitars, and keyboards that veer between decorative cocktail piano and ice rink organ (courtesy of former crematorium organist Barry Westhead). Are Starsailor the future of British pop? Let's bloody hope so. --Kevin Maidment