By Stan Cierlitsky
What's going on with so many new UK bands leaning into the new country sound? My friend is lobbying for me to start calling it alt-Americana, but either way you get the point. It's also interesting to see a lot of these young bands have been listening to their parents' record collections. I recently mentioned in my Westside Cowboy review that I would imagine their parents had a pretty big Wedding Present collection, with a couple Modest Mouse records thrown in. Well, southern UK band Starter Car is the newest addition to follow these trends. Their debut album, Afterlight is out August 28 on Tapete.
As I mentioned, their music clearly has a lot of elements from the new country movement. You're gonna hear MJ Lenderman, Greg Freeman, and Wilco here, but there are a lot of old favorites that this reminds me of too. Mostly I think you're gonna hear a lot of The Go-Betweens due to the violins (thanks to Sophia Bartlett from Tugboat Captain), the harmonizing, and even some of the guitar parts. The slower songs on Afterlight feel a lot like mellow Teenage Fanclub or Real Estate. Again, I'd love to see their parents' record collection.
Their debut single, and album opener, "Throwing Down" has a twang, yeah, but but dammit if it doesn't sound like Oisean Burnett is trying to sing like Lloyd Cole here. It's a big sounding mid-tempo song, and a nice way to open the record. The song "Safety Net" will not only remind you of Sparklehorse, it even references the late Mark Linkous. "More Me" is another of my favorites here. That one starts slower and hits a mid-tempo stride before changing again and picking up steam to end gloriously. It ends simply with the words, "I just want you to be... happy."
Afterlight does a nice job moving from slower songs like "Stranger" (which almost reminded me of The Harvest Ministers) to more upbeat songs like "Dumb Luck" later on. There are elements all throughout Afterlight, but, man, do they put it all together on "Kicking", the second single and album closer. It's already one of my favorites of the last few weeks, and it's a song that everyone should check out.
Starter Car has a promising future and their debut Afterlight is worth your time this week. I know I mentioned Westside Cowboy earlier and I can't help but think how great it would be if these two bands toured together. Fingers crossed.
Afterlight by Starter Car is out on Friday via Tapete.
[Photo: Robyn Black]