Written by: Dave Cantrell

Brimming with a confidence beyond both their years and, more impressively, their relatively minimal track record (the full-length from which the single below was taken – Afterglow – is their debut), South London-based band Starter Car, aside from being in competition for “New Band Name of the Year” here at SEM, present as a first-taste single off said Tapete-released debut a rather stunningly straightforward pop gem that resonates through this particular writer’s brain as if it’s a lost, somehow never-heard bouncer from those glorious post-punk/new wave days of the late 70s into the early 80s when your correspondent was, presumably, in the exact same early-20s age range of this lot. Following on from four strong early singles only one of which – the first one, as it happens which via some level of linguistic synchronicity is titled “Dumb Luck” – is included on the album though as one might guess has since been provided with a cleaner updated shine, to the extent an album’s first-released single can be heard as a clarion call as to what to expect from the album entire, well, we can only tell you that this is what’s called “a textbook example.”

Positively brimming with hooks that range from nuanced to outright earworms, exhibiting what we can only think to call a ‘chiming charming new wave energy’ along with lyrics solid enough to match nearly any pop gem (see below the vid), “Know What to Say” appeals to that most instinctual of bedrock influences from Alex Chilton (Big Star and solo) to the Byrds at their most chartbound irresistible to just about any fill-in-the-blank band from the early 80s Kiwi pop explosion, all while carving themselves a solely indentifiable niche that we’re pretty damned certain will itself inevitably wield its influence on those aspiring bands in whatever garage on whatever continent. While that sounds a bit grand, fact is it’s our experience here at SEM that first singles, while often displaying obvious promise, seldom shimmer with the elan found here. And? Not to be too cute but, from all we’ve heard off this album, Starter Car’s chassis could not more perfectly waxed.

[How remiss could we be if we didn’t list those responsible for this bit of wonderment:

Oisean Burnett – songwriter/singer, guitar

Dougall James – bass, piano, backing vox

Bex Vines – guitar, backing vox

Maggie McGuire – drums, backing vox]

Know What to Say Lyrics

What have you done at the end of your life?

Walk around your feelings walk around strife

If all your words just fall out the sky

Then you do the talking I’ll find the time

Oh I could be losing my life

So it’s nothing

You always know what to say

Don’t you?

You always know what to say

Don’t you?

If people run and people hide

Then all these people might lose their lives

First their sons and then their wives

Then their children with burned out eyes

And oh we keep losing

But my life well it’s nothing

You always know what to say

Don’t you?