Starcrawler - Starcrawler

Starcrawler, recorded by Ryan Adams, deliver a refreshing blast of rock ‘n’ roll cherry bombs in the early chapters of their debut. The pace is only shortened by questionable diversions into metal and blues-rock, and the kind of sludgy melodicism that recalls Sabbath at their most indulgent. While sailing pretty close to pastiche, the band (just) manages to tack away from homage and find an identity for themselves, mostly to do with Arrow De Wilde’s distinctive blues-infused and honeyed vocal. It’s just a little difficult to pin down her musical personality though – wild caterwauling banshee or stoned angelic. It’s fair to say she can be both, although all the press shots suggest the former, and in these days of social media microanalysis, the kids are gonna be confused.

Still, for the most part, Starcrawler delivers the kind of youthful vigour which excuses the tendency to flag their influences across a full-armed tattoo of sound. What’ll we be tonight ? Early 70s rockers, metal-heads, stalwarts of hard rock, or unhinged rhythm and blues like Janis Joplin ? You can have it all, and you can hear it all on the debut. Each band member is barely out of school, and collectively Starcrawler possess a pretty impressive armoury of sound. I just have this nagging suspicion that they’ll go down the major label route. I imagine the corporate wolves will be howling at their door anytime soon. The sound is conducive to nuggets of easy flowing indie-rock, as much as it could develop into freewheeling insurgent rock.

It will be interesting to see where Starcrawler are heading.