Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 06/03/06
Label: RCA

One of the many New York bands signed in the wake of The Strokes, Stellastarr's quartet of non-smoking art school grads were loathe to be lumped in with any such scene. Here, as they follow up their poppy 2003 debut, their sound echoes that separatist intention.

So, imagine you've discovered, in a box of old videos you were about to throw away, a copy of a John Hughes movie you're never seen - never even heard of - from, say, 1986. The soundtrack, rather than being a collection of hip contemporary tracks and the odd soul standard, is all by one group. It's '80s-y, of course, but it's also epic, and it's as adept at scoring the comic moments as the tragic teenage interludes. Welcome to "Harmonies For The Haunted".

When our mismatched young leads' eyes first meet, start with upbeat-but-yearning last track "Island Lost At Sea". For the giddy, 'stolen Pop's car for an other-side-of-the-tracks tryst' scene, cue up "Damn This Foolish Heart". The young lovers have rowed and parted; regretting their argument, He searches for Her in the bad part of town as "Sweet Troubled Soul" plays. She's already home, sitting on her window seat and moping out of the window as it rains artfully; "On My Own" envelopes the images with an icy empathy.

Reunited, they wander around the fair, say, laughing on rides and sharing candy floss, and stay out until sunrise as "Love And Longing" shimmers through the night (courtesy of Michael Jurin's Edge-y guitar). At the end, everyone's friends, the bad kids and the rich kids and the geeks and the nerds, and the couple are at the heart of this fleeting hormonal bonhomie; the pure Pixies "Stay Entertained" whirls deliriously in their orbit.

Singer Shawn Christensen creates a simply massive sound on his own, a combination of David Byrne, Robert Smith, Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler and Alex Kapranos that - although ludicrous on a first listen - strides assertively through each song, improving the entire album. By comparison, bassist Amanda Tannen's backing vocals are almost surplus to requirements, weedy additions too low in the mix that might want to evoke Kim Deal's clipped contributions but sound more like Molly Ringwald (or whoever) half-heartedly singing along in her adolescent bedroom.

Overall, the effect is post-punk Cure with swathes of Ride in heady moments and, as overblown and unlistenable as these amassed elements might sound in your head, it's actually fantastic.

    by Emma Morgan