Written by: Dave Cantrell
The question presents: Where to start with a band like Starter Car, and for that matter where do you stop? Because, y’see, most young bands don’t emerge from that garage-born (or bedroom-born or wherever-born) chrysalis this fully formed, this much in command of the whats and wherefores of their chosen craft, sounding for all the world like they’ve been around for a forever that just began yesterday. It’s a conundrum of sorts, of course, some kind of Sphinxian riddle that won’t necessarily get solved here and even if it did in some fashion you could be nothing less than sure that the genuine, sui generis rock and pop and roll songcraft on display herein would continue down its unstinting path nonetheless and for that, even if you don’t read another word here, you can be grateful.
Formed in 2024 after songwriter Oisean Burnett transplanted himself from Glasgow to London and proceeded to – of all things in this digitally obsessed world – staple and tape “bandmates wanted” flyers in what he hoped were key enough locales to draw curious eyes of what would turn out to be – music-wise, style-wise, whatever-wise – like-minded musicians and, well, via the agency of what’s generally referred to as ‘beginner’s luck’ he pretty much hit the proverbial jackpot and here we are with Starter Car’s resulting debut full-length born of that audaciously retro organizational effort and, well, yeah, screw them new-fangled Craiglisty means of getting the word out because if Afterlight, released August 28th on (who else?) Tapete, is any indication, the telephone pole/bulletin board method still bloody rules.
Sound-wise, as immediately made clear by opener “Throwing Down” with its crackling, country-tinged finesse, the band – rather oddly, I admit, but also somehow rather inevitably – had me imagining what it might likely have sounded like had the ‘Young’ in the Youngbloods been named ‘Neil’ instead of ‘Jesse Colin.’ It’s a curious thought brought on by the curiously (which is to say fabulously) ‘modernized retroism’ that – along with the requisite gift for melody meeting hook meeting solid-as-a-Slant 6 structure – courses through the veins of this band’s sound with an ease and pluck that few since the heyday of Sparklehorse et al a quarter damn century ago have been able to muster. And, I mean, if you’re going to be influenced – and we all inescapably are, don’t kid yourself – that particular era, short-lived as it was, is strewn with enough diamonds in the rough to sustain all comers in its wake, including, as it happens, a certain Mr. Burnett. As such, consider…
…from that “We’re here!” introduction we veer from the subtle build of “Avert” as it traverses from the ‘gently melodic’ to an elongated crescendo that MBV forgot to write and, yes, that’s our cue to give crazy props to producer Joe Futák, whose previous work with lilo, piglet and Baggio has now burst on to our radar here at SEM and if we may say, judging from those earlier examples, makes in intractably clear why Afterlight is turning so many heads hear at SEM Central, each one of them with that somewhat rare (given the usual muso’s hardened jadedness) ‘Whoa, who’s this?’ demeanor and we know you know what we’re talking about, dear reader, so let’s move the fuck on as the imperatives keep stacking up the further we get down the tracklist.
Next up we land on – in? – “Safety Net” where we not only find those unique production values repped throughout which is to say the mix is really showing off their chops that in, umm, concert with the band’s deftly presented, instantly recognizable (already) sonic footprint – we’re thinking the phrase ‘forcefully dynamic delicacy’ pretty well nails it – makes the track arguably this lot’s most essence-capturing calling card, serving as it does as a none-more-representative example of the tight-yet-roughshod aesthetic at play here.
That enough? No? Okay, then, let’s cite “Wisecrack,” taking as it cannot help to do that effortlessly jaunty for a nifty – and classic – three-minutes-and-change ride to that elusive center where hooks rule the day by being subtle as fuck. Or “Know What to Say” that might just end up capturing the ‘pop classic’ trophy on this (highly competitive) ten spot outing and of all the more-than-worthy candidates here would land on one of yours truly’s mixtapes if he ever gets back to that once obsessive practice. Or, teaching us again to wait til the end. there’s “Kicking” closing this sterling calling card of a debut with perhaps the most realized example of this lot’s unique ‘diamond in the pop rough’ stylee, it’s head-nodding quotient pretty much off the charts even as, per the foregoing, is chock-full of such.
All of which is to say, from that production to the sheer songcraft itself, Afterlight, as a debut outing, could simply not be more promising and, as such, more alluring. Congratulations to all involved.
