PeeP on PoP- Starfucker

Starfucker- Reptilians (Polyvinyl- 2011

~by Gabe McBride

83_______________________

Reptilians, the newest by Portland’s Starfucker, starts off out of the gate with its most disposable moment, a generic guitar chord accompanied by an almost comical turntable scratch, as the intro to album opener ‘Born’; serving as a curveball for what’s an otherwise fairly serious, if still very danceable electropop endeavor. What makes Reptilians such a success is the band’s ability to retain a rich, luxurious sadness at the album’s core, which tends, in my opinion to make for the best pop music.

The songs are interrupted every few tracks by a very British man talking about his thoughts on death, which he seems to view as not only inevitable, but in some ways, desirable or something to look forward to. I can’t say that head ‘fucker Joshua Hodges feels the same way, and damned if I can find any references on the web to who is the owner of these spoken interludes, but I have to assume that the band went into the studio with doom on their minds, not that this is the band’s goth album by any stretch. Known for their energetic, upbeat live shows, the band hasn’t stripped anything down from their two previous albums, heck, if anything, the tunes on Reptilians are even more dense, catchy, complex, and bursting at the seams with ideas than those on Starfucker (2008) and Jupiter (2009, both on Badman Recording Co.).

It took me a couple months to get my brain around Reptilians (hence the relatively late date of this review, considering the album was released in March) but it turns out Reptilians is apparently best listened to at full blast, in an empty office, working late on a Friday night. The sunset was beaming in through the window behind me while I wrote up some court paperwork that would need addressing first thing Monday morning. I was a little sad about not being home with my family, the drawn out, retro-futuristic synth chords of ‘The White of Noon’ played through my head and it fit perfectly. It was a bittersweet note that the album hits over and over.

For Fans of: Passion Pit, Hot Chip, New Order