Starsailor - Silence Is Easy

Starsailor have made a very safe album. Fairly melodic, tightly produced, and well-written, but safe. It sounds very similar to their previous, Love is Here; no matter what type of music genre you are into, one would be hard-pressed to deny the comfy, dreamy, quality of their work. Except if you get easily annoyed by a singer who sounds constantly warbly and possibly on the verge of tears at any moment. Starsailor have a fairly recognizable sound consisting of melodic, fuzzy guitars, and rich, often lush production quality; however, variety would be welcome within Silence is Easy to keep the listener’s attention. “Music Was Saved” opens the album with a sparky, high-tempo ditty that is unlike the dreamy, often somber mood the songs are in. Following is the dramatic stacatto of “Fidelity”. The rest of the tracks follow with a slower, dream-like quality with the same themes of love, life and despair, lyrics border on trite (“I've grown to see the philosophy of my own mistrust/ We all have our faults, mine come in waves that you turn to rust/ Some of us laugh, some of us cry/Some of us smoke, some of us lie/ But it's all just the way that we cope with our lives”). “Bring My Love” is a standout track mostly because a smartly added lushness of an orchestra, which is a welcome change from the near monotony. Silence Is Easy is a safe album because the only haters would be those with an aversion to all rock music in general. The major fault is perhaps a little too much of the same thing. Stairsailor can write a song and pick the right producer to pretty-it-up (Phil Spector has the honor on some of the tracks), but can be tiresome those who want more than background music. [www.starsailor.com]