Stars & Sons - Good Morning Mother

It couldn’t just be us that feel as though piano-pop as a genre is unfairly maligned because of a few, shall we say, poor bands. Some people feel as though the entire thing should be tarred with the same brush, as a result of the existence of bands like The Fray - safe and predictable, therefore terrible in the eyes of many. You may call them opinionated, or even elitist snobs. That’s your choice, though.

While it’s been in decline for a while now, some of its big names stumbling as they experiment with new sounds (Keane and their patchy ‘Perfect Symmetry’), there have been other household names that have done well for themselves, to put it mildly (hello Coldplay!). While we wouldn’t bet on Stars and Sons becoming anywhere near as big as those two (much as we’d like to see it happen), they’ve gotten off to a great start. The main reason for that is that ‘Good Morning Mother’ is astonishingly good fun, though you probably already guessed that from the cover.

This is a record that likes throwing curveballs. It’s quite eccentric as a whole, which actually means that the Elle Milano comparison we made when cracking single ‘If It’s Good For Me’ got reviewed here a while back, holds up. It can be imagined that the quartet had the time of their lives while making this, if the music is any indication. Strings-drenched opener ‘Out of View’ is like Air Traffic on Prozac, relying on jerky rhythms and rather interesting chord progressions as it’s swept along.

They have a biting lyrical bent, too (something that music of this type often lacks). ‘Futureproof’ finds Mike Lord in fine form: ‘Can you calm down, sir? A moment of cool composure? I hope you don’t keel over suddenly’.

After this hyperactive opening trio, Stars and Sons change tack, switching into ballad mode for ‘Empty Hands’, which features some seriously Jonny Buckland-esque guitar, which of course will invite Coldplay comparisons by the truck-load. This leads rather well into another up-tempo track, ‘In The Ocean’, which races along on xylophones, catchy backing vocals and some confident drumming from Stuart Provan.

The band’s enthusiasm is infectious, and it’s rather hard not to get caught up in this record’s rush. Once you reach the halfway point and encounter ‘Drop and Roll’, which edges into dream-pop, sounding something like a less mental Flaming Lips, you should have already decided whether or not you want to plough on to the end. It’s easy to imagine tiring of ‘Good Morning Mother’ if you haven’t been won over by then. Those fine with the chirpiness, however, will find a lot to enjoy, especially three-minute gem ‘Untested, Untried’, which features some effective use of a flute. Yes, a flute: they’re that kind of band.

The album may seem relentless, but the slower tempo and groove of ‘Fights Already Fought’ provides a perfect respite. The all-too-brief ‘4 Stars’ finds the band moving into slightly heavier territory, Lord going on the offensive as he sings, ‘Go fuck yourself ‘cos you’ve got nothing on me’. Such a thing would seem almost risible if ‘Good Morning Mother’ wasn’t a great album.

Things end on an appropriately upbeat note with ‘Outside My Feet’. Percussion and a ringing guitar line lead to possibly the best chorus the record has to offer, and that’s quite a compliment considering the ten that precede it. Albums like this often stick to a policy of ‘better safe than sorry’, but Stars and Sons are having none of it. Thinking outside the box has meant that they’ve breathed new life into a formerly stagnant genre, with forty minutes of bubblegum brilliance, and they’ve enough ideas in their heads to go all kinds of places with album number two. Let the anticipation begin. Yes. Already.