DEAR SUPERSTAR - review added 23rd January 2009
Album Review: Heartless (2008)
For fans of: alternative metal... and Bullet For My Valentine
Dear Superstar consists of Micky Satiar, Smeth, The Minge, Milton Gunns and Amadeus. Yes I know, but bear with me...
This is their second full length album (after their self-produced debut, Confessions Of A Twisted Mind). Style wise they are raw, rough and pub-ready. Think of Heartless as a minimally produced, albeit super-talented working men's club band and you'll be near the mark. This is all about shout along choruses and un-evolved fret abuse.
Most of the album is suitably heavy, but too many portions are anonymously safe. Heartless is a cocktail of punk, metal, alcohol and bravado served in a pint glass. Individual moments are fine, but as a whole it struggles like a woodlouse in liquid paper
It's all been done a hundred times before, often with a shovel load more panache.There are numerous other bands playing 'live studio' music. You need to do something special to get noticed in this genre. I'm not sure Dear Superstar are any more special than a ham sandwich. What we need is a smoked salmon and caviar ciabatta.
Stand out songs? 'Rock Bottom' is very good, excellent in fact. 'Hollywood Whore' gives a wonderful flashback to 80's sleaze metal. The remainder of the album is a blur of shouting and grade 5 chords.
What Dear Superstar have on their side, fortunately, is a wonderfully infectious nature. I'm no doctor, but if you go near this music you might catch something. Technically and musically this album is a joke. It does nothing new and even gets a few of the old things wrong. What it does do, and this is rather naughty of Dear Superstar, is it gets in your mind. The music is dross but full to the rafters of character. You'll hum the songs for hours after you hear them.
Can't Write A Love Song? You're damn right there! Can write a strangely memorable album? Er, yes actually. Grrr.
Check out... Live.Love.Lie. It features the boys from Bullet From My Valentine somewhere in the mix.
Track List:
1. Brink Of Destruction
2. Brothers In Blood
3. Live.Love.Lie
4. Signposts To Bedposts
5. Anytime Anyplace
6. Raised Voices And Confrontations
7. Rock Bottom
8. Hollywood Whore
9. Diseased And Distraught
10. Can't Write A Lovesong
Label: DR2
Band websites: Dear Superstar , MySpace
