Starcrawler - She Said

Rock appears to be going through its memory boxes at present: emo is back, pop punk’s enjoying a revival, and there are even a few bands trawling back a bit further into history for inspiration. It wouldn’t be unfair to pinpoint Starcrawler as one of these resurrectionists, leapfrogging off the vibes of The Stooges, The Distillers and The Rolling Stones. However, while their songs are solid, there’s something – or rather, things, missing. The LA quintet’s third album doesn’t quite explode as much as it hopes to, though a few songs threaten to, largely the acid-tongued, grinding ‘Roadkill’ and the vintage-sounding title track. The best of the bunch by quite a wide margin, however, is the woozily romantic ‘Stranded’, which might just be the only number here to have enough atmosphere and feeling to create a big, beautiful moment. Elsewhere, while the remaining tracks are slick and pack decent riffs, and they’re cohesive with a clear sense of identity, there’s not enough that’s properly memorable, and not enough that’s truly distinctive. As an album, ‘She Said’ is fine. Still, what’s rock‘n’roll about making music that doesn’t frequently get beyond fine?