Customer Reviews

Leave Here A Stranger

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jason Martin is a true artist. Simply lovely guitar-driven melodic rock. SF59 continues to go against the norm and make beautiful rock and roll music.

LEAVE HERE A STRANGER is nothing less than pop perfection, it's Jason Martin's masterpiece, it's a classic that resonates with modest charms and effortless brilliance, and it's easily my favourite album of 2001. While I'll happily give this 5-star accolades, I just want to point out that Wayne Everett (Lassie Foundation) is sorely missed on this record. There was a complex, intuitive elegance to his drumming that added an extra something to previous Starflyer albums, especially EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES, which is replaced here with a more conventional but nonetheless effectively steady beat (which maybe is what Martin was after). Also, Everett's falsetto vocals that backed Martin's was a secret Starflyer power that's rarely acknowledged. But otherwise, LEAVE HERE A STRANGER is absolute genius and highly recommended!

first off: i'm exceedingly biased towards starflyer; jason martin could sell a cd of pepsi jingles and i'd still buy it. this particular album is great, though not as great as the last two full-lengths. it follows in the vein of "everybody makes mistakes" to some degree, but the songs don't have quite the edge of that particular outing. don't get me wrong, all of the songs on here are great, but some of them seem to be lacking something...i can't quite put my finger on it though. another bummer about this album is the fact that it is not really a ten song album, the song "...moves on" is a 1:20 transition song that is just "i like your photographs" fading into "night music." some of the lyrics are a bit middle-schoolish--i.e. "when you climbed up in trees/because of kicks in the knees" ("your company").

ok,it is actually an amazing album, it just has a few low points. the high points abound. "can you play drums?" and "i like your photographs" are two of the best songs to be recorded in the last 5 years. "your company" has a child-like innocence about it. a friend of mine swears that the simplistic lyrics are intentional to make the song feel more innocenct...i dont' know about that, though.

though not the strongest album in his catalogue, this is certainly a great effort by mr. martin. and it beats the hell out of most other albums released last year.

I think the "sounds like Pet Sounds" cliche' is overused, but this album reproduces wonderfully in mono sound. Overall, Leave Here A Stranger has an intimate, inviting feel to it. At times in the vein of Brian Wilson, at times like Travis(only much more sophisticated), and at times like The Bends era radiohead; this hushed gem is great to wake up & go to sleep listening to.
My pick for the 2nd best album of 2001, just behind Ester Drang's goldenwest.

Starflyer 59 is, and always will be, my favorite band of all time. In a world where Britney Spears reigns supreme and girls fling themselves at N'Sync, there still is some hope as long as Starflyer is around. With them, there is no glamour. There's no "oh, this sounds cool"; you know it's cool the minute you hear it. And why is it cool, you may ask? Because Starflyer focuses on making good music, and that only. Every song they make is carefully constructed to its best. They make the kind of songs that you like, finally get used to, then you suddenly discover a neat bass trick or drum beat that you never noticed before.

Their newest album ever, "Leave Here a Stranger," will go down in history (for those who care) as Starflyer 59's masterpiece. Every song flows smoothly into the next, which could be a somewhat problem in some of the band's past efforts. It opens with "All My Friends Who Play Guitar," which is not my favorite song on the album, but a good five-minute song nonetheless. After that, we get the wonderful "Can You Play Drums?" which is one of my favorites. The next three are good, nicely-crafted songs, followed by another ingenious melody, "This I Don't Need" The plucked strings will leave you breathless and sobbing for more. The final four (actually three) tracks are mighty good ones; yesireebob, mighty good. "I Like Your Photographs" is one of the most eeriest songs to ever come from Starflyer, with an "X-Files"-like whistle and a cool marching beat. "Night Music" is exactly that; I'd love to drive downtown in a car with this song coming out of my speakers at midnight. That would be really cool. The last song is another "good" one, like the first, and is a good closing track. I didn't like it that much at first, but it's come to grow on me (as all of Starflyer 59's music eventually does).

Do you thirst for good music? Do you crawl out of bed screaming in agony at the top of your lungs for that melody that you desire? Now you don't have to! Starflyer 59 is here for you. Go buy "Leave Here a Stranger"; it's worth every singly milli-penny you have.

Some albums are great albums, full of wonderful songs. Some albums reek to high heavens. A very select few albums are works of art. Although it may sound pretentious, Leave Here A Stranger by Starflyer59 is definitely in the latter category. From the very first spin, something about the flow, the cohesiveness of the songs and how they interact with each other makes you realize that SF59 had high aspirations for this album and that they hit their mark perfectly. While listening to this disc I am reminded at times of the landmark OK Computer, early The Cure, and Pet Sounds, lofty sources of inspiration indeed. In a conscious effort to strip down their sound, SF59 recorded the album in glorious mono, forcing themselves to distill their vision into a potent concentrate. Much like Pet Sounds, there is an amazing breadth of instrumentation including harps, saxophones, strings, timpani and more. The fact that such lush orchestrations do not cloud the songs is a tribute to all involved. As with past SF59 efforts, there is a great bit of creative use of noise and heavily reverbed guitar alongside Jason Martin's trademark wispy vocals not unlike those of Radiohead's Thom York. The songs are low-key and atmospheric yet filled with haunting melodies and arrangements. For lyrical inspiration, the band looked to their immediate world. The opening track, "All My Friends Who Play Guitar" cascades a wash of sound like the waves on a beach as Martin sings about a life spent on the road. The chorus of "Can You Play Drums?" has Martin lamenting that "I already know what we're gonna play" and in "Things Like This Help Me" he "stays up late [to] fix all the sounds." For this musical brew, all influences are fair game including The Smiths ("Give Up the War") and Roy Orbison ("Night Music"), although like the best cooks, the ingredients are combined to create a completely new dish with only hints of the original sources. My personal favorite is "I Like Your Photographs", a mesmerizing epic of a song whose topic still eludes me. The six minutes of this song are a well-written novel with chapters that flow effortlessly into each other. This beautifully lonely indie-pop masterpiece will appeal to fans of Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, and The Smiths and is sure to send shivers of delight down your wicked spine.

If Brian Wilson had recorded this album, he'd be damn proud. Is that enough of a recommendation? Jason Martin shares Wilson's love affair with beautiful sounds, and LHAS is sheer beauty.

starflyer 59 out of this world moving melodies engrafted rock love the popinrock in.... 11,2,9,5,1,6,3,7,12,4,8,10

Starflyer 59 could have reached the point where they just might be musically bored. Fortunately, for the music fans Starflyer 59 keep producing quality albums and "Leave Here a Stranger" displays the band's best work to date. This is quite an accomplishment considering that Starflyer already has quite an impressive resume. On LHAS, the band explores the experimental sounds that it had been tinkering with on the "Fahion Focus" and "Everybody makes Mistakes". The difference is that LHAS flows so well it sounds like the masterpiece that Jason Martin and company went searching for. Or were they searching at all? Jason's vocals seem a little bolder and the music has never sounded better. The album was recorded in mono much like the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" and LHAS displays the best music Starflyer 59 has produced. Jason sings "I already know what were going to play" on the track "Can you play drums?" but on LHAS you'll get the idea that you have no idea what Starflyer 59 might play next. The songs are brillant on this album and finally just maybe Starflyer 59 left as a stranger.

SF59 has done it again! anothern great album of the starflyer we all know and love. some great sounds not heard used much in their records, if at all, such as strings and a harpsichord. well rounded, well written, well played, well produced. just great!