Starflyer 59

Item: Can't Stop Eating
Author: Bryan Keen

Can't Stop Eating

(2002)

Reviewed by Bryan Keen

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Label Tooth & Nail RecordsHM Magazine #99January/February 2003

alternative rock dream pop indie rock shoegaze

What Starflyer 59 couldn't quite pull off with their last long-play — a sonic pop aesthetic reminiscent of Pet Sounds — may well have been realized on Can't Stop Eating. There is really only one totally new song of the CD's five to gauge this melodic move, the first one, "Compeating." If you've been following along with the band, you won't be shocked with the new song (or the entire EP for that matter) as the tone progresses fairly naturally from Leave Here a Stranger: bright and crisp at times, melancholy and crestfallen at others, added keyboards (sweet moogy synth, I must say), and, sadly, no full-throttle "wall of sound" distortion-chordage from early SF59. Indeed the progress is natural, but rather than "naturally" progressing downhill like LHaS, the sound rebounds here. The song is just solid — it sounds good; it's interesting to listen to; it's not self-indulgent; it's kinda catchy; plus, there's a touch of sentimentality, but just enough to make it warm. For reference, you might just imagine it as a hidden track on The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The next three songs on the EP act as (for unfortunate lack of better metaphor) filling, in a way: although relatively appetizing in their own right, they do not really and truly satiate that deep, longing Starflyer hunger experienced by their most undernourished of dinners. This is partially due to the fact that all three are, in some bizarre way or 'nother, covers, and here's what I mean by that: track 2 is "West Coast Friendship," certainly written by frontman Jason Martin, but only as he appears in Bon Voyage with his wife and said band's vocalist, Julie; track 3 is "Happy Birthday John," a woeful yet somewhat upbeat bar-song/ballad/lament written by singer/songwriter/guy Damien Jurado; track 4 is "Give Up the War (stereo mix)," a similar redo of their mono-version from LHaS, so it's really only a pseudo-cover. That leads us to the strangely haunting, mysterious "Theme from Dromedary," the outro on Can't Stop Eating. It's a scary, wordless western of a theme accompanying the online publication by Starflyer boxset-biographer J. Edward Keyes. Inclusion of this extended version acts to even further the album's goodness, rounding out a sure, quality EP that regains some of the ground lost on previous endeavors. Let's hope the next full-length is just as tasty.

Editors' ratings — Doug 3.5/5, David 3/5