Prior to the release of her full-length album, LA’s Starla Starshine has released the single Red Lagoon as a fitting introduction to her sound and what you can expect from the upcoming project. It’s a bold song, intense and melodic all at once – Starshine fuses melody and big bass-lines with notable levels of reverb, plus something a little more quirky or even Tarantino like lingering in the backdrop. It’s a cinematic feeling song that brings together a few different genres, but it does so in a stylish and subtle way. For the most part, your focus is on how easily effective the soundscape is, and elsewhere purely on the artist’s leading voice and her unpredictable lyricism.
Red Lagoon hits a little harder with each new listen. In the way that certain songs from throughout our musical history have a particular depth or thread of swagger and originality about them – Twist In My Sobriety, Wicked Game, to name just a couple – this song soon proves itself to have that same timeless quality. It’s captivating, unusual, but satisfying – the song’s hook and the arrangement of this among these distant synths and contrasting guitar riffs, makes for a huge moment that’s quickly recognizable and quite addictive to listen to.
To coincide with the single, we were also gifted with the opportunity to hear two other songs from the upcoming album. As an artist, Starla Starshine exercises eclecticism and creative freedom quite extensively throughout her writing. Lover Man has a familiarity to it, vocally and in those distorted bass notes, but conceptually and indeed melodically this seems to create a totally different mood. There’s an air of both delicate trip hop and heavier electronic rock to her approach. It’s an appealing fusion of elements, and as stated – it’s always driven by effective, fascinating songwriting and a clear connection to the music.
Bad Boys is another track from the upcoming album and this one has something immediately attractive and cool about it. The spacious introduction means that your focus is on the organic set-up and the melody, the voice, the idea. The song hits like a well-known, alternative Americana piece – it’s intriguing in a blues-rock sort of way, but it’s also ambient and seductive at the same time. Once again, the vibe is fresh. This is a personal favourite of the three and marks the moment at which a listen in full to the final project is fairly essential. Starla Starshine is an artist doing her own thing entirely, but more importantly than this alone – she’s doing it in a clearly knowledgeable, professional, entertaining way.
