Harmony For The Haunted

stellastarr*’s debut was one of the high points of 2003 to me. It’s filled with uplifting songs that seemed to be inspired by early grunge, Pulp, and John Hughes movies. The perfect experience from start to finish, they could break my heart and lift it up at the same time. So when their follow up Harmonies For The Haunted came out two years ago, you better believe I was there with bells on. When I brought my precious copy home and listenend to it, I remember being a bit disappointed, because they seemed to have lost a bit of the silliness and playfulness. As a result, I only listened to it a couple of times and whenever I felt like listening to the band I invariably reached for their debut. I don’t think that’s entirely fair of me, I was so in love with their first album it was almost impossible to follow it up by my standards.

Now that I’ve required a proper amount of distance from both albums, it turns out the follow up to stellastarr* is a great piece of work. Maybe it’s not as exuberant and enthusiastic, but it’s equally surprising and poppy. It eases you in with “Lost In Time”, a love ballad with a big, big sound. My favorite is definitely “Damn This Foolish Heart”. It plays with your feelings as the mood swings up and down like a bipolar seesaw. They’re now working on their third album which will be “faster, less mid-tempo, more energy, more rock, slightly more aggressive”, according to lead singer, Shawn Christensen. So faster, agressive rock … sounds deeelicious to me!

   stellastarr* - Damn This Foolish Heart