I really can’t remember for how many years I’ve been hearing about the new Star Star album… songs are written, recorded, produced, mixed, is it ready yet? Well, not yet! The last one was “The Love Drag Years” was released in 1992…
But, finally here it is! It’s time to listen to it and actually get as a physical product, not just digital through YouTube, Facebook, etc.
The question in cases like that, where you’ve been waiting for an album for so long, is whether it will meet your expectations, what expectations have you built up in your brain during the band’s absence while you’ve been listening to the older stuff, how much is the band affected from such a long absence and if it’s capable to release something noteworthy after all those years. Plus, if you add the very little live action that took place in the recent years, including the pandemic, what’s also crucial is how you remember the band since the last time you saw it live…
In Scream Idol’s case we also have the issue of the name change to Scream Idol, which happened pretty recently.
So, maybe it’s not fair, but it’s inevitable, to make comparisons with the past and the previous releases. Scream Idol released an album that sound more modern, the production and the style is contemporary, rather than the ‘90s aura of Star Star, but at the same time the band’s identity is unharmed. The songs are quick and catchy in their majority. After the first spin, or “play”, they stick to your mind and after that it becomes addictive, isn’t that the biggest badge for an album of any artist nowadays?
Johnny Holiday’s glam, trash, garage, hard, pop, sleaze flair is fully updated of the new decade, century, millennium and sounds fresh as well as vintage at the same time. It’s like a two-way time travel to the past and the future. Especially, the intro to “Teenage Doom Disciple” possibly on purpose steps on “Love Drug Years” for a while. Apart from that, all the similarities with older songs are vague and shameless. “1000 Years To Deep” and the title-track introduces some electronica elements and keyboards that suit the songs perfectly as they are underline the connection to the past, present and future.
Let’s just hope that Scream Idol’s next work will come in less than 30 years from today!
