Costar 'Keep It Light'
DELICATE, HARMONY DRIVEN SONGS, FULL OF INFECTIOUS CHARACTERISATION
Alternative rockers Costar originated in Bergen, Norway, where
lead vocalist and wannabe cowboy, Brighton Gay grew up and formed
a band with local musicians Boy Volvo and Boris Flashback. A move to London
and one or two line-up changes later, the places of the
latter two members have been taken by guitarist Jonny Oksen Bull, drummer
Reno Nevada and bassist Dusty Domino.
Following the 2003 EP, Brothers In Crime, this album announces their arrival
on the international scene in polished and confident style. Although the
band maintain that it combines 'Americana with electronica', this could not be
described, strictly or otherwise, as a country album. This makes the
visual claims of the cover all the more extraordinary, laden as it is
with images of stetsons, horses, wagons, ropes, spurs and rifles - not to
mention the porcupine which stares out from the CD itself. But Costar can
be more than forgiven this peculiar indulgence on listening to what proves
to be a collection of characterful, accomplished and infectious songs. All
are Brighton Gay originals and some are the band's highlights from Brothers
In Crime.
'Yeah Right' kicks things off and is strong and punchy, with sunny harmonies
and just a hint of the ethereal quality which becomes more prominent later.
The following 'Where You Go', is distinctly siky in comparison, still uptempo
but with less immediate pop appeal, and melodically is a little ungainly.
But no matter, when just around the corner we have 'Special', a song which
carries itself along with a truly irresistible momentum. The weighty drums
create hypnotic, driving rhythms, until around the two-minute mark those
light, airy harmonies from 'Yeah Right' come back and the whole track is
lifted up to another level. The repeated line, 'This is not a broken promise/
This is not a lie,' comes to the foreground during a stripped-down section,
but the return and fadeout of the original heavy rhythm in the closing seconds
is perfectly judged.
Things continue in a similar vein for a while until we reach the arresting
and simple 'Still I'm Here'. From the guitar opening until the fabulous vocal
distortion towards the end, everything suddenly becomes more economical
here and all the better for it. This track also represents one of the few
instances of any real and successfully conveyed emotion on 'Keep It Light',
which inevitably makes it more satisfying to listen to. 'Peaking' suffers
from being placed directly afterwards and consequently sounds rather weak
and watery, the breathy harmonies appearing contrived for the first time.
'Falling At My Feet' is agreeably pacy while 'Downward Spiral' is
undistinguished, and the sweet delicate vocals on 'A Little Help' appears
worlds away from 'If I Can Change Your Mind', which breezes across old
ground without making an awful lot of impact. In short, Costar have hit upon
a tricky, fragile musical formula; the energy and strident enthusiasm of
their style mean that it's easy to push things too far for too long. But when
they get it right - and this album contains quite a few of these moments -
they are capable of making distinctive, fresh and invigorating music.
(3/5) Maverick Magazine
Costar 'Keep It Light'
WRONG, TOWN, WRONG PLANET, THREE HOURS LATE?
Alright, this is pretty peachy. The off is “Yeah
Right” and for those of you
lying awake at nights wrestling with the ancient riddle;
“Where do Dawn Of
The Replicants and nasty 60’s jangle-thrash
meet?” will be able to be say
and play “Yeah Right” dance the answer
and, eventually, get some kip.
Everything on this is soooo slick, such a seamless,
morph n meld between
pop, metal, sugar, bile, melody and sleazy mayhem,
that you’ll wonder why
you ever needed those other records. There are, because
daft they ain’t,
another eleven tracks on this set, but the stall set
out on “Yeah Right”
provides a reliable guide, they’re screwing
with the entire 60’s
brit-pop-rock cannon and that includes the scary,
less well known bits as
well, check “Special”, far more strange
Syd than poppy Floyd. What
elevates
Costar from the huge chasing pack of two-toned, polo
neck posing
revisionists is the ruthless way they’ve dissected,
destroyed the main
influences and rebuilt ‘em in tougher, 21st
century ways, we have the
technology and all that, but technology and a sonic
honesty about your
influences aren’t, in themselves, anywhere near
enough. Costar are
aggressive and inventive. Production is absolutely
ace, check the jammed,
but clean power-ballad “4 Days”, every
piano strike audible in a well
swirled mix, very sharp.
www.unpeeled.co.uk
Costar 'Keep It Light'
The press blurb for this says that the CoStar's lead
singer, the excellently named Brighton Gay (the bassist
is the equally impressive Dusty Domino), was brought
up on the mighty sounds of Black Sabbath and the unfettered
genius of Mark Bolan. With an unholy alliance of influences
like that, a demonically heady concoction is expected,
but alas this is no “20th Century Paranoid Boy”.
What you get instead is pretty much porridge all the
way with the occasional aromatic scrap: a lumpy kind
of XFM daytime friendly stew that leaves you craving
something more nutritious. That’s not to imply
CoStar wont achieve a modicum of success, in today’s
harsh climate people seem to be drawn to a certain
type of safe plod rock, just look at XFM’s complicity
in the crime of bringing Keane to our attention, a
band with all the charm of a Financial Times index
column. That said, CoStar are accomplished musicians,
the songs have good structure, the singer has on occasion
an engaging voice and there’s an obvious level
of creativity gone into their image, but ultimately
they don’t amount to the sum of their parts.
The opening two songs pass you by in hazy blur, leaving
you in a grasping amnesiac state wondering where the
time went. The third track, “Special”
is more interesting and mildly surprising after the
opening, a swampy groove is driven along with voodoo
drums and horizontal vocals. It almost succeeds until
you realize its similarity to Ian Brown’s recent
output.
The rest is commonplace rock fodder intercut with
the odd appealing, breathy female backing vocal and
in places sounding suspiciously like the overrated
Foo Fighters. The LP signs off with a song called
“Dying of Boredom”, and with a gift title
like that its best that I dont comment.
The arch Alchemist Brian Eno once said that he knew
it was time to quit Roxy Music when one night during
a gig he started to wonder how on earth he was going
to get his catsuit dry cleaned for the following night's
performance. I experienced a similar thought process
here, about half way through I started to think, “umm
that wall could do with a lick of paint”. The
point being that pop music or any music for that matter
should take you out of the mundane and elevate you
to a place of sublimity, but when it just leaves you
contemplating the mundane something is seriously askew.
(6/13)
www.roomthirteen.com
Costar 'Keep It Light'
Norwegian singer-songwriter Brighton Gay (!) grew
up with dreams of stetsons and branding irons, but
his relocation to London, accompanied by like-minded
Bergen musicians, results in a more edgy, electronic
sound that will appeal to lovers of Royksopp, Kings
Of Convenience and the wee Magnet fella.
Americana-inspired in places, Falling At My Feet
and Yeah Right being aimed straight at daytime radio,
the bivouacs of A Little Help and Lee have bigger
soundscapes to keep them vivid. In fact, constant
exposure to Costar suggests they might join their
brethren soon. At least this lot are the source,
rather than the sample.
(3/5)
Record Collector
Costar 'Keep It Light'
FLICKING through the booklet that accompanies this
debut album from London-based Norwegians Costar, you
could be forgiven for expecting a fairly trivial listening
experience. Cheeky nicknames, cowboy personas and
mocked-up ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ posters
do not necessarily foretell an album of great substance.
But slot Keep It Light into your CD player and it’s
a very different story.
Finally with us after several postponements, Keep
the Light presents a decidedly bleak musical landscape
awash with Johnny ‘Oksen’ Bull’s
sublimely melancholic guitar playing and tales of
longing, fear and regret. On Peaking, the quartet’s
superbly-named vocalist Brighton Gay tells us that
he’s ‘having the time of [his] life’
but it sounds more like he’s recently lost a
close relative. In fact, such is the versatility of
Gay’s voice, he variously sounds like Mansun’s
Paul Draper, Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Foo Fighters’
Dave Grohl. However, the lyrics he’s delivering
do not replicate the emotional depth hinted at by
the music. Casual rhyming and lazy reliance upon repeated
phrases may disappoint those who listen to the words
as well as the tunes. Nit-picking aside, this is a
confident and promising debut.
(3/5)
www.manchesteronline.co.uk
Costar 'Yeah Right'
Two years ago we seemed to be on the cusp of a pop
revolution. Kid Galahad, Athlete, The 45’s,
Easyworld; all came bearing the fruits of the tree
of melody, two years later we’re still waiting
for the Fame Academy to be destroyed and its graduates
to be put against the wall. That revolution is still
fermenting though, its light being nurtured by the
old school and the flaming torch being passed to such
as London’s Costar. Indie Pop is a genre that
no-one’s looking too closely at, but it’s
where it’s all happening.
(3.5 out of 5)
logo-magazine.com
Costar 'Yeah Right'
They're from Norway. Their frontman's called Brighton
Gay. With all this in mind, we'd quite like them to
be the best band in the world, thanks. They're not,
alas, but this is a confident enough missive, tearing
away onto a plateau of somewhat shiny alt.rock with
impressively understated vocals, and, while it's about
as new as, ooh, the hills, it's still fine work in
a vaguely fourth-album Catherine Wheel fashion, and
third track 'A Little Demo' is, in fact, proper special.
Coo!
www.playlouder.com
Costar 'Yeah Right'
Of course, sending a bitter old drunk like myself
a CD marked ‘Costar’ is asking for it
to be sitting on my desk with a glass of bourbon placed
on it, but in an uncharacteristic display of coherence
I managed to give it a listen. Opening with a sneaky
ray-gun noise – always a good idea – first
track ‘Yeah Right’ manages to be more
engaging than its initial impression of Foo-Fighterness
suggests. Despite a desperately predictable lead-in,
nice vocal interaction on the choruses and good use
of unusual noises lifts it above the average. The
middle eight (if it’s still called that) in
particular is a sunny poppy whirl that sadly terminates
in some clichéd rocking out.
Most of the interesting stuff on the second song
is happening in the rhythm track, which is a moody
Portisheady thing. Slower and darker with a lush translucent
chorus, it still smacks of a band without any clear
sense of direction, as if they wish they were weirder
then they are. Best track then is the third, titled
‘A Little Demo’, a jangly, resigned piece
of angsty indie-pop with some beautiful, half-mumbled
backing vocals. This was “recorded and mixed
in a hurry” which may mean that they didn’t
get the chance to fiddle with the production until
they lost sight of the song.
Overall though, I feel a little uneasy when I hear
this kind of gruff, earnest alt-rock voice and it
sounds too much like Nickleback if they re-invented
themselves after hearing ‘The Bends’ for
me to be a fan. There’s definitely potential,
but Costar aren’t quite good enough to play
the lead role yet.
www.soundsxp.com