Lava La Rue - Starface

A sprawling, 17-track concept album about a queer alien who comes to earth, in the wrong hands ‘Starface’ could have been an exercise in overblown bombast. Few records, if we’re being honest, can clock in at such length and keep the standard up throughout; ‘Starface’, however, can. In only the first third, we’re taken on an odyssey through warm, low-slung funk (‘Better’ ft Cuco), shimmering rap (‘Push n Shuv’), and a strain of transcendent psychedelia so Tame Impala-like that we had to genuinely check twice to make sure Kevin Parker wasn’t credited (‘Aerial Head’). A window into the multitudes of an artist who’s evidently brimming with them, it’s exactly what you want from a debut: a musical calling card that shows precisely who they are. 

A keen collaborator, the smart but disparate array of voices that the West Londoner enlists to pepper ‘Starface’ also keeps the record on its toes. Audrey Nuna’s warped vocals come in over grizzled riffs to give ‘Poison Cookie’ its dark underbelly; ‘Fluorescent / Beyond Space’ features her fellow NiNE8 Collective members and rapper Feux for a constantly-shifting piece that brings to mind the group spirit of Gorillaz, while closer ‘Celestial Destiny’ recruits bb sway for a more simple, sweet duet – a love-drenched finale that avoids any whistles and bangs. That Lava La Rue has managed to tame such huge ambition into a long-in-the-making debut that’s inventive but accessible and never outstays its welcome is a feat not to be diminished.