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Since releasing their self-titled debut album in 2018, Starcrawler has taken the “Rock is dead” pessimists to task. The young quintet brought a wide range of genres together for their latest album, She Said. There are three different categories of rock and roll; heavy rock and roll, radio-friendly pop rock, and mellow, soft rock, all in a good way.
You will experience a new state of mind when you listen to it. De Wilde deploys sweet come-ons, a laCourtney Love and Hole, before the listener is hit upside the head with a flurry of power chords and tension-inducing fills. One of the first songs written for this album was “She Said”. At the beginning of the Pandemic, Henri came to my window and showed me a demo, and we wrote the lyrics together like Shakespeare’s plays. We wanted the record to be named after that song because it was such a powerful moment in the writing process. Rounding out the heavy-hitters, Starcrawler puts on a quasi-punk barn burner that bests early Green Day-tones with more polished riffs and tension-inducing licks.
Caught somewhere in the middle of the road with a radio-friendly pop rock is “Thursday” that captures the feel of the late 80s as if Go-Go’s and The Cars had a hit. The pop-princess vocals are infectious and the guitars are frightening. There is a disco ball that is fun and funky called “Jetblack”. A more complex bassline in the mix shows both Franco’s maturity and talent, one that will undoubtedly cause one’s ass to shake to the left and to the right. Carolina keeps this Nugget in the pocket. The band keeps it simple but effective with this raw rocker and it only takes two minutes and two seconds to hear it.
On the softer side, the band offers up “Broken Angels”, “Midnight”, and “A Better Place” The double chorus conjured a lullaby effect. It’s hard not to compare “Midnight” to a couple of acoustic gems like “Torn and Frayed” by Rolling Stones. The comparison is merely a compliment. Starcrawler is able to explore different sounds and genres.
