Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip

A good band name goes a long way: it’s the main reason I still listen to Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. And in name, Ringo Deathstarr are up there with the likes of SSLYBY and Half Man Half Biscuit for naming themselves with the perfect combination of Star Wars and whimsy. After releasing an EP and a string of singles, the three-piece from Texas have now readied their debut album ‘Colour Trip’ – a rather dull name that only makes the superb band name stand out even more.

They start the album off with ‘Imagine Hearts’, and immediately the shoegaze influences are eminent, think anything from The Pains of Being Pure of Heart to My Bloody Valentine. And while this first track may sound a bit like a paint-by-numbers copy of the latter, it’s in fact only a taster of the yumminess to follow. With each track, the album keeps getting better and better: the pop melodies get catchier and the guitars progressively more prominent.

The intro to ‘Kaleidoscope’ could easily be mistaken for an Arcade Fire song, albeit while played as a polyphonic ringtone on a Nokia 3210 on a train screeching through a tunnel at 60 miles an hour. The pace really picks up at ‘Chloe’ and ‘Never Drive’, both of which kill at twenty paces (so please do take care when giving them a listen). Their feet are taken of all kinds of pedals for the last two tracks for which they again to the shoegaze template.

The album has a great build-up, and the vocals of Elliot Frazier and Alex Gehring complement and contrast each other surprisingly well. They might not win any prizes for originality (save for their awesome band name), but the album is most blissfully addictive.