Starfire Rocks Out Via New LP

In a galloping number like “Get Up and Move,” we’ve got no choice but to follow the wise words of Starfire and do exactly as the title of the song tells us to. Whether the grinding beat of this track is raging on in the background or something a bit more casual in the form of “Girl Watcher” has our attention, there’s always a rhythmic point of expression to be enjoyed in the new album Dreaming of Your Destiny, which sports some of the most full-bodied rock music I’ve listened to from an underground act this year.

There’s something about the way these players take on “Hooked on a Feeling” and “I Can’t Sleep” that makes even their more formulaic approach to the structure of a harmony sound incredibly appropriate as a response to the dragging minimalist movement in rock music today, and while I won’t say that everything in this record revolves around making an aesthetical statement, it’s worth noting that the better part of the material in this tracklist sounds like it’s been crafted in retaliation to slipping standards in heavy music around the world lately. 

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“This Wonderful Moment” and “Owner of This Heart” live and die by the contrast in their arrangements, but how they utilize the tension in their music is entirely different. The same could be said for “Hooked on a Feeling,” “I Can’t Deny,” and “Get Up and Move” as well, and to some degree, I think Starfire wants us to focus on the dualities they both ignore and employ when trying to make a point to the audience. It’s quite difficult to take a cover of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and make it sound original and wholeheartedly independent from other renditions we’ve heard of the song through the years, but you would never be able to guess that just in listening to how Starfire is putting it to work for them in Dreaming of Your Destiny. They’ve got poise as a band and as musicians operating under the same moniker, both of which are becoming rare qualities among acts across the dial in recent times. 

In songs like “Do You Dare,” “Into the Night,” and “Girl Watcher,” Starfire makes it rather impossible to argue against the validity of what rock n’ roll is still producing in 2022, and beyond this, I think they make a case for being one of the smarter acts of this genre making noise on either side of the mainstream at the moment. There’s no denying the kind of presence they have when they’re laying into “Everybody Plays the Fool,” and not once do they sound like they’re trying to fill the shoes of another bygone generation whose influence is still lingering in the air to this day. This is rock the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with a bit of indulgence in the mix and all, and I think that those of a discriminating taste who pick up their own copy of Dreaming of Your Desire are going to share my enthusiasm for its content. 

Mindy McCall