Starar impressed a year ago with the gauzy shoegaze beauty “Talisman“, and the duo is back at it with the wonderfully mellow “Ride”, which evokes imagery of cruising through a desert just as the sun is setting. Steven and Jenna Starar are the brother-sister duo that make up the band with the latter taking lead vocals. While not quite country music, there’s still a twang in Jenna’s voice that makes Starar sound like they’re from the Midwest (they’re actually from the UK).
Steven handles the subdued drums on “Ride” with minimal bass drum and rim clicks to keep the time. Jenna’s vocals are the main focus and a simple, uplifting chorus that encourages us to “keep on riding.” Starar know that simplicity is key, and here they show a more alternative-leaning and twangy approach compared to past shoegaze and dream-pop-oriented efforts. This slight change of course proves to be refreshing and quite enjoyable.
From the duo themselves:
“We’ve taken a little time off to come up with some new songs and such, and this is the first song we’re putting out there from a selection of new material we’ve got to release. The song is called Ride and will be on our EP ‘Holding Out For The One’, which already has 2 tracks released from it already last year. The new tune ‘Ride’ is in a kinda acoustic/singer songwriter/folk style, reminiscent of Bruce Spingsteen/Joan Baez/Bon Iver, a minimalistic tune with simple guitars, simple rhythm track and some beautiful atmospheric strings and organ. The vibe of the music and lyric should take you to mid-west desert at night.”
