Sometimes I think Jason Martin will never die. No matter what, the guy continues to crank out well-crafted, original tracks while the rest of his comrades fall away on every side. Martin is the singer / songwriter for Starflyer 59, whose Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice marks the band's fourteenth release on Tooth & Nail Records, where they first debuted in 1994.
By now Martin has spent plenty of time in everything from noise rock to surf rock to shoegazer pop to indie pop. Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice seems to find Martin more comfortable than he has been on any Starflyer album in recent memory. While the pop sensibilities of Old and the beauty of Leave Here a Stranger do exist on a few songs, by and large the music here is the band's darkest since Americana.
After easing us into the CD with "The Contest Completed," "Easy Street" shows the darker musical side of the band. There's a sadness that pervades the song which is only driven in by Martin's haunting vocals. It's a sound that works wonders, especially when the album leads to other songs such as "Softness Goodness."
As far as accessible tracks go, the most obvious choices are "Good Sons" and "Good Living." "Good Sons" is blistering right out of the gate. It contains the same sensibilities as the majority of the songs on Old, but with the stakes raised. "Good Living" feels like it was lifted from the region of Jason Martin's brain that conceived "No New Kinda Story" for Everybody Makes Mistakes. The song encapsulates the feeling of working class blues that much of Starflyer's work is concerned with: "What's the use of living if you can't make a good living?"
The album ends on a positive note with "Longest Line": "Got one destination / For Jesus to call me home / For faces sad and wasted / Oh that we would be known / It's all in good time / To get in the longest line." It's easy to see why such a song is important on this album. If life is as sad and mundane as most of the album believes, then we need to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
While Talking Voice doesn't hold the greatest chance of drawing in high school girls, this is an album destined to please the type of music connoisseurs who would be happy to stay home on a Friday night listening to My Bloody Valentine. It's an album that people who love good music can easily get behind.
4.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis June 2005Reviewed by Peter VenessOver more than a decade Jason Martin has carved out one of the most under recognised niches in indie rock as the force behind Starflyer 59. He has moved from British influenced shoegazer to bluesy and ballsy rocker and then on again to where we find him today, a lanquid but far from lazy dreamer filled with floating rhythms and gently crushing drum fills. Talking Voice Versus Singing Voice is not…The Phantom Tollbooth 2005Reviewed by Jonathan AvantsStarflyer 59 has quite a respectable history behind them--they're one of the oldest acts still signed on Tooth and Nail Records. They've released over a dozen records including multiple EP's, a compilation dual-disc set, and now nine LP's, and they've switched and progressed their style nearly as often. It's possible for a band, after so much time and development and so many records, to have run…Opus 2005Reviewed by Jason MoreheadThere are a handful of bands that immediately cause me to stop whatever it is that I'm doing whenever they release a new CD. Even if I don't review it for Opus, the minute their new album lands in my grubby little hands, it immediately shoots to the head of the queue, pushing the dozens of other CDs littering my desk off to the side. Starflyer 59 is one of those bands, and the moment the promo…Similar sounding releases
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