Article by Umberto Scaramozzino
The return of the Starsailor it is one of those events that seems to bring peace and harmony to a system with a precarious balance. It doesn't add much either to their history or to that of British alternative music or rock – about which they wrote at least a couple of good pages in the early 2000s – but in some way it's good for all of us. To realize this, perhaps it is not enough to listen to “Where The Wild Things Grow”, a good album released last March after a silence of almost seven years, but it is important to immerse yourself in one of their live performances, like this one at space211 Of Turinduring which you can enjoy an atmosphere that only a band from post-Britpop can give as a gift.
After the prolonged break that had left the engines off for eight long years, a first reunion of the combo led by James Walsh arrived in 2017 to warm the hearts of millennials, just before a further limbo of expectations, certainly expanded by the pandemic. The promise of a solid return, however, is renewed today, with a sixth recording chapter that brings with it the freshness of new beginnings and the desire not to remain crystallized in a past that is absolutely impossible to replicate. And in fact the artistic journey of Starsailor, which began more or less in the same historical period and context as other well-known bands such as Keane, Doves, Embrace, Travis, Turin Brakes, Snow Patrol and – yes – Coldplay, was perhaps precisely the most risk compared to the perfidious trap called “nostalgia“. A record like “Love is here” in this sense it can be both a blessing and a condemnation, right? However, the Starsailors have an extremely rare and effective secret weapon to avert this danger: humility. The same one with which they work on new pieces today, knowing that they cannot rest on the glories of their early career. Convincing songs are born from here, both in the studio and live, among which the title track and the brilliant “Heavyweight” which animates the audience like any evergreen of the first two albums.
The show is very short, just an hour and a quarter with a setlist of seventeen songs (the same as the entire tour) interspersed with rare moments of interaction. Those few moments of contact between James and the audience, however, are absolutely explanatory of what makes a band like this special in 2024. There is the total absence of arrogance, there is a healthy dose of gratitude and the naturalness which is increasingly difficult to find even in emerging artists, let alone in a project with a quarter of a century of history behind it. This is also why seeing the five Englishmen on stage is a pleasure. They smile, exchange knowing nods and perform each song with pride and the desire to have fun. There is one beautiful atmosphere who arrives without filters, inclusive, daughter of a gentle rock.
“The band has gotten older, our fans have gotten older, they have kids now and in some lucky cases those kids listen to the same bands. It's nice to see some people in the audience who are younger than this song”. This is how he presents “Fever”, a visibly amused and perhaps even a little excited James Walsh, despite the fact that he almost certainly showed off this line in every show of the tour, or at least all those with some young representatives of the new generations. The frontman's voice, in reality, doesn't seem to have aged at all and if it weren't for James Stelfoxwhich gives authenticity anti-rockstar smokes his beautiful electronic cigarette on stage, you might think that time has stopped at that magical moment at the beginning of the century and the beginning of the millennium. A warm illusion which perhaps doesn't project Starsailor towards an exciting future, but offers a positive, reassuring and beneficial dimension in which every good Britpop lover can still find refuge.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
