Album Review: Starcrawler - 'She Said'
Starcrawler’s ‘She Said’ paints a vivid picture of the complexities of human beings, along with the trying times artists faced in the pandemic and how vital it is to grow and change as a person.
2019 saw Starcrawler release their album ‘Devour You,’ and a lot has changed in the world in the last two years, but Starcrawler have come back bigger than ever with their newest album ‘She Said’ which is out September 16th.
Starcrawler opened ‘She Said’ with the song ‘Roadkill.’ Talking about the song, Arrow explained that “it’s a great first song – it’s saying ‘we’re here, this is us.’ It started out as a story about betrayal, but through the process of writing it, it turned into something totally new. It was like we were the roadkill – like you’re constantly running from something.”
The song itself has a fun riff, and it’s such an easy track to get stuck in your head. ‘Roadkill’ seems like it’d definitely fit very well into your playlists that you listen to in the car, whether it’s for long journeys or even just while on the drive to work or while doing other daily tasks.
Next up, the album’s title track ‘She Said,’ has an undeniable energy to it, it automatically feels like this song would be fun to hear and experience in a live setting. Arrow said that “I feel like the lyrics pertain to a certain feeling everyone goes through,” and it does very much feel like the aftermath of a breakup, as well as wishing you could change to be the person that they want.
Describing the sixth song of ‘She Said’ which is called ‘Jetblack,’ Arrow opened up about what the track means to her “to me it sounds like a summer party night – it’s about dancing for so long that you forget everything else.” ‘Jetblack’ very much captures the feeling of being young and free, and just having fun with your friends without worrying about any responsibilities in that moment. It’s a celebration of youthfulness and the freedom to enjoy life however you want.
Henri also explained that ‘Jetblack’ “was another one that we had written for a TV show. We were asked to write a modern song with no guitar, and I had this bassline that was so cool and soulful.” While reflecting on how this track came to be, Henri also said that they’d made changes to the track before reaching the final version that you hear on the album, “we thought, what if we take the synths off and add guitar? Then it was amazing.” It’s hard to imagine this song never sounding as good as the final version does, but it’s entirely understandable that the band wanted the track to be as perfect as possible before they released it.
‘True Deranged’ “was about not knowing if you were ever going to play a show again,” according to Henri, and the dread and anxiety of so many artists around the world during the pandemic is palpable in this track. The song also captures the dread people face in everyday life as well when life is beginning to feel stagnant, and we begin to feel as though we’re not living the life that we expected ourselves to be living.
Starcrawler closed their album with ‘A Better Place,’ takes a step back with its energy, and paints a picture of longing to be a different person for a variety of different reasons through the track’s lyrics. Henri said that when writing this song “I wrote it about something totally unconnected to me, and then a month later every line had a deep personal meaning to me.” The feeling of melancholy throughout this track compliments the rest of the album so well, the shift in energy is used in such a beautiful way in order to reflect on what could very much be about the experience of being a human being.
“We still sound like us. We’re still Starcrawler. We’ve just levelled up,” and if ‘She Said’ is just the beginning of this new era of Starcrawler, then they are undeniably going to become a powerhouse of their scene in the not-too-distant future.
Words by Bethany Ellis
