Starflyer 59

Item: I Am the Portuguese Blues
Author: Mike Leech

I Am the Portuguese Blues

(2004)

Reviewed by Mike Leech

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Tooth & Nail RecordsDecapolisMay 2004

alternative rock indie rock shoegaze space rock

There comes a time in the life of anyone who's ever heard Starflyer 59 where they realize the truth... This band is way better than everything! Better than stuffed-crust sausage pizza. Better than winning the lottery. Better than your wedding day or the birth of your first child. Way better!! I wish I could say that I came to this realization at a fairly young age--that I have grown up listening to and loving this band more than I listened to and loved Carman or Michael W. Smith. But sadly this is not the case. In fact I can explicitly remember thinking that Starflyer was "too depressing" when my older brother fell in love with the Silver album and forced me to listen to it almost a decade ago. But I was just a kid, and in the immortal words of everybody's favorite wet bandit, Daniel Stern, "Kids are stupid".

It wasn't until this year, in fact, that my eyes were finally opened to the brilliance of Jason Martin and his ever-shifting line up of space-rocking bandmates. Arguably the best group to ever emerge from the Tooth & Nail label, Starflyer 59 is easily one of the most underrated bands in indie rock today. With a career spanning a decade and releases that just keep getting better and better, they are also somewhat of an anomaly. Just how many more insanely catchy melodies can Jason Martin come up with? How many more directions can he take his sound before it begins to sound stale? Is that even possible? Well, since the majority of the music on I am the Portuguese Blues (IATPB) was written by Martin nearly seven years ago, these questions will have to remain unanswered for now.

Initially written as the follow up to 1997's power rock homage, Americana, the songs were scrapped at the last minute for the 60's dream pop style-shift album, The Fashion Focus. Now, finally, Martin and the gang have dusted off those old demo tapes, added a few new tracks and essentially supplied us with "the missing Starflyer album". Like Americana, IATPB is full of monster riffs and raw, edgy dynamics. Gone are the synthesizers, strings, pianos and dazzling studio effects of their last four full lengths. Starflyer has become a bare bones--guitar, bass and drums--rock and roll band again (for now at least).

I've heard the music on this album described in other reviews as "big dumb rock", and I think that sums it up pretty well. The songs are fun to listen to, and memorable enough, but they won't blow you away. It's a giant step backward for Starflyer, but this is very forgivable considering the circumstances of its release. A few standout tracks include "Destiny", "No Revolution", "I Need Some Help" and "Teens in Love" (which, if you listen closely, contains the only instance of Jason Martin shouting "woo" that you're probably ever going to hear).

As for the rest of the album, there isn't a lot worth writing home about. As a whole IATPB is easily one of Starflyer's weakest releases to date. But fortunately for us, a bad Starflyer album is still a decent album. It's far from fantastic, but like all of their albums, it will grow on you after a while. If you bought this record hoping for another masterpiece like Leave Here a Stranger or Old you can at least take solace in knowing that another brand new Starflyer full length is scheduled for release later this year. Until then, if you're looking for a good time you might want to give IATPB a whirl.

3/4