Starcastle

Yippee! Starcastle, he says while lightly clapping and grinning like a lunatic. Was it really all the way back in February that we first encountered their 3rd album, Citadel? Time certainly flies. That was one of those highly contextualized reviews where i was pointing out that if you're even slightly out of phase with the acute vacuum of the band itself then it will not speak to you at all. 

There is no mistaking Starcastle, you get exactly what they tell you you're going to get: castles floating through the sky on clouds. There's no snark, no irony, no hidden message, no intellectual challenge. This is bright, shiny, relentlessly happy, rainbow suspenders, Fantasy Prog from 1976, and if that's not your thing then you won't like it at all. We have to compare them to Yes, because Starcastle is literally like expanding Yes's Your Move into its own spin-off franchise. Regardless, wowzers, these guys are fantastic. Ripping guitar solos, energetic bass lines, more synths than hair if you can believe it. 

Granted, it's been a few months since i listened to Citadel, but this self-titled debut sounds crisper and a little less polished in the most delicious way. They were clearly a super-tight band who knew exactly what they wanted to do after the truck crash that broke all their gear and their guitslinger's back. 

Lyrically, it's very much a mythological epic. Not so much a coherent story, but a series of transcendent vignettes with almost no traces of tangible mundanity. I couldn't tell you what it's about if i tried; watery tarts handing out swords in farcical aquatic ceremonies, seasons cycling in rapid time lapse, crawling out of our subterranean lairs to bask in the sun, the Fire Child is born. I'm not complaining, but no, none of it will stick in my brain for any amount of time, it's a very in the moment kind of listen. Super fun, though. I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of their albums, and any other Chicago Prog i stumble across. Starcastle and Trillion can't possibly be all that scene has to offer. No, you're not gonna pop this on for anything other than an enjoyable 40 minutes of sugary cheerfulness, but sometimes that's exactly what you need.

Looters