Starflyer 59

Jason Martin, frontman of Starflyer 59, has had a long career. Thus, there comes a time when it is good to look back and see where he has come from. This is where his new album, Ghosts Of The Past, comes in. It’s a collection of covers, demos, and b-sides, collected together in one double album. Not so much a “best of” as a retrospective. The result is that many of the demos, particularly on the first album, and tracks from his last album, Dial M, Dial In, which was very well done, find themselves featured. The rest consists of some interesting acoustic versions, a few covers, including a take on, “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want,” by The Smiths, which Martin referenced in his song, “Minor Keys.”

Speaking of, “Minor Keys,” its demo is a little bit edgier than the final version, with an extra, crunchier guitar part added. It makes for an interesting listen, though the final product works a bit better as a streamlined song. “Mr. Martin,” is also an example of a song that has changed dramatically from demo to final song. The demo is much more uptempo and roughly produced. It’s pretty jarring to hear such bleak lyrics against such an upbeat musical backdrop, so the final product is also the better one here, and the acoustic version that follows serves as a much more interesting song. It’s also nice to have some of these b-sides like “Thin As A Needle” together in one place, instead of tracking down the various EPs and singles that they were originally released on.

There are a few problems with this album, though. For one, it doesn’t really feature much from Martin’s early days, instead focusing on new material, in particular his last album. This is strange given the title is, Ghosts Of The Past, which apparently only means the recent past. This means that to fill up two discs, we get pretty much the entirety of Dial M again. The demos don’t sound significantly different for it to really be warranted, so this will only appeal to new fans who don’t already own the last album. The covers are also mostly forgettable. Martin’s style is so distinct and memorable, that it doesn’t work as well when he tries to mold it to someone else’s song. The only covers that really stick out are, “Please, Please, Please,” and, “Guitar Man.” These work mainly due to the original style of the songs being so close to what Martin already does that it’s an easy fit. The fact that it is a double album also leads to the problem of it being just a massive amount of music to get through, though this is true of most double albums.

Despite this, it is worth picking up for fans and it does work as a retrospective of his recent career. New fans might want to start with one of the regular albums before checking out Ghosts Of The Past, but it won’t be a bad place to begin, either. So, it’s not a perfect album and does have some filler tracks as well as a few too many from Dial M, Dial In, but there is enough interesting material here to warrant at least giving this one a listen.

Tagged as: Ghosts of the Past, Starflyer 59

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