Starflyer 59 -- Easy Come Easy Go

10/10

I put off reviewing Starflyer 59's Easy Come Easy Go because I have an abundance of emotional connection to it, which will make this review so overtly biased I almost thought of just putting the score and leaving out the actual review. That didn't make any sense did it? A bunch of thoughts crammed together that not only didn't form anything coherent, but didn't follow the rules of English grammar. This album came to me at a crux of thought formation, and I am reviewing it at a crux of thought formation. In fact, I am forming ideas as I write it. My pre-conceived notions of what it was going to be are being swept to the wayside.

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I've never listened to an album that perfectly tracks the feeling of both falling into a depression and coming out of a depression like the 12-song B-side-section of Easy Come Easy Go's second disc. That first listen, while I was ironically, in the black beating heart of a depressive episode, was nearly 20 years ago, yet, ironically, at this moment, I also find myself in the black beating heart of a depressive episode.
I guess I should just shut up and review the album, though.
Easy Come Easy Go is an amalgam of an album. The first disc takes three tracks each from Starflyer 59's first five albums, in chronological order, showcasing the band's gradual transformation in that five-year time period from a blend of noisy, heavy, surf-tinged, shoegazy hard rock, to something like indie-pop. The band had a way of front-loading the most "singles-ish" songs on their early albums, so these songs mostly come from those albums' opening salvos. While some fans may become upset at Easy Come Easy Go's lack of deep-cut representation (Personally, I just want "Sled!"), it's tough to argue that these fifteen tracks don't both perfectly represent the full spectrum of Starflyer 59's sound, as well as present a full, satisfying musical narrative.
Besides, if you've got all five of those albums, the true star here is the second disc, anyway.
Easy Come Easy Go's second disc is split into two sections. The first features "B-Sides & Rarities." I don't know who hand-selected and ordered these songs, but I want to give them a hug.
"I Was 17" kicks things off with a chill, island flavor, all gentle guitar, vocals, and vibraphone, before the fun and upbeat guitar-pop of "All Done Wrong." Things suddenly begin to shift with the sludgy, heavier intro of "Elijah the Prophet," the song wistfully bouncing between quiet-to-loud dynamics, as the section slowly plants seeds of dark melancholy, which gently sprout in the sour jam of "When No One Calls," before fully blooming in the emotionally apocalyptic "Next Time Around." The latter is five-plus minutes of morose and stormy guitar humming, buzzing, crackling, and exploding over Jason Martin's dejected vocals.
The melancholy continues in the album's plaintive centerpiece, "Goodbyes Are Sad." The song's simple title seems trite at a glance, and yet Martin sounds so earnest in this beautiful track, the title's words seem the most honest and full statement he can make. It's tough to describe just how singular Martin's sound is here, his guitar sounding so ancient and eternal, a glowing light hanging in some timeless hallway of despondency, the drums raining just outside. Yes, this description is most definitely over-the-top. Then again, I mail-ordered this album during a period in late 2002 where I didn't leave my room for three weeks. I've got an emotional connection to it that is perhaps a little exaggerated. Thankfully, I was able to get out of that depression, and get back to life, but it was damned hard. I lived in this music.
"She Was My Sweetheart" starts off hovering in the darkness of the previous tracks, though Martin begins to inject feelings of acceptance into his voice. The song slowly builds into a sort of 50's Doo-wop track, but in the context that there's this condemned dance hall that no one has set foot in 60-years, and vines are growing up the walls and through the roof, and the tiles are cracked, and the windows are boarded, and the jukebox suddenly powers on by itself, stirring and awakening ghosts to jovial dancing.
This builds to a less final, yet still victorious demo-version of Americana's "Everyone But Me," which sounds unmistakably like Martin walking outside into the sunshine, the hope of the 50's surf guitar tones from the previous song now blooming into full-blown positivity, much as the earlier melancholy did before into outright sadness.
This change toward a positive perspective leads to the fun "Wherever You Go (First Space Song)" a jaunty, "Chris Isaak roaming the galaxy"-like instrumental that signals a feeling of moving on. This is reinforced by the fun and wacky, "Shedding the Mortal Coil." There's one look back at melancholy, though it's sepia-tinted, in "Samson," my favorite Starflyer 59 song. It's just a sublime, melancholy, yet warm and hopeful crackle of Martin's guitar and voice. When school started back up in spring of 2003, and I played the song at KLSU and mentioned I'd listened to it all Winter Break, one of my co-hosts said, "Nice, so you were making out with somebody all winter break." I guess the song's got a romantic vibe. However, I could only answer back, "No...I...stayed in my room alone the whole time...except to eat...and you know...the other stuff you have to do."
Thankfully, that semester ruled because I decided to go with the first answer in the Ellis Boyd Redding equation. Though I've faced many depressive episodes since then, and have, quite honestly, been facing a pretty damn bad one this last month, I've been able to climb out of all of them. 17 years ago, Easy Come Easy Go most definitely helped. Writing this review is helping me right now. Unfortunately, at least for me, there's no easy cure. There's a bunch of positive thought process crap and mindfulness exercises and socializing that I have to force myself to do, and I've been doing that, and I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in weeks, though I know tomorrow I might wake up feeling worse than I have in weeks. All part of it. Who cares, anyway, this is an album review.
Easy Come Easy Go ends with eight live tracks. I'm not sure where they were recorded, or if they are all from the same set. I can say that I saw Starflyer 59's first late-night set at Cornerstone 2002 (they played twice) and it is in my all-time top five favorite shows. The second guitar player had this white guitar the size of a Buick that sounded like a grand piano. The show was ethereal, galactic magic that put me in a trance for an hour. I think I shut my eyes somewhere into the third song, and kept them shut until the last note, swaying back and forth like a reed in a stream.
From what I've heard, Starflyer's shows from this time period were often either akin to my experience of "That was the best performance I have ever witnessed" or antithetically, "That was the worst performance I have ever witnessed." Apparently, the band's equipment often went out during their shows, leaving most of their set times to awkward silence as roadies worked on the technical difficulties. Easy Come Easy Go's closing live section delightfully splits the difference.
These eight tracks are a ton of fun, mostly rollicking versions of selections from the band's fourth and fifth albums. Sure enough, one track is almost solely dedicated to a kick-drum breaking, and it delivers some excellent ambiance and humor, but doesn't overstay its welcome. The music goes on, and by the time the final jammy section of closer, "When You Feel the Mess" rolls around, there's an inescapable wave of feeling that lends all of Easy Come Easy Go a transformative sense of finality and perfection, a bow and definite ending to the first phase of a great band's career.
Also, a final note. It's pretty obvious why I feel better today than I have in weeks. If you think you're currently suffering from depression, I've got one major bit of advice:

Get out and be with people you love. I'm an introvert, so depression has a particularly easy time tearing me to shreds, as my natural inclination is already to stay inside by myself, even when I'm happy. Ironically, the thing that helps me to climb out of a depressive episode better than anything else involves going against my introverted nature. No, I'm not saying that your book-loving self should go hit the club with a bunch of strangers. I am saying that you should get in touch with your close friends because if you're like me, you've got maybe, MAYBE four of them within driving distance. Get in touch with them (whoa, I just realized I've got like six friends within driving distance now!) and do something together. When you're depressed, or at least when I'm depressed, absolutely nothing, EVEN VIDEO GAMES is enjoyable. However, for some reason, there is some magic in that togetherness that puts cracks in the depression. I feel like I always resist it, but as I think back to every depressive episode I've ever had, that in-person time with friends has been the catalyst to getting out of it. Last, night, I went out with those same two dudes I went to Cornerstone with all those years ago. It was magnificent. We saw mewithoutYou (I love those guys!) and Pedro the Lion (they love those guys!), two bands we ironically also saw at Cornerstone (mewithoutYou on the same day as Starflyer!). It'd be awesome if all the bands who played at Cornerstone in 2002 paired up and went on tour together. *COUGH* STARFLYER59ANDZAO *COUGH*


2000 Tooth & Nail Records

Disc One
"Best of '94-'00"
1. Blue Collar Love 4:04
2. Monterey 3:00
3. Hazelwould 2:54
4. A Housewife Love Song 4:12
5. Duel Overhead Cam 4:38
6. You're Mean 2:05
7. The Voyager 4:37
8. The Hearttaker 4:06
9. Harmony 4:21
10. I Drive A Lot 3:14
11. We're The Ordinary 4:13
12. Fell In Love At 22 2:32
13. Play The "C" Chord 4:15
14. No New Kinda Story 3:49
15. 20 Dollar Bills 2:13

Disc Two
"B-Sides & Rarities"
1. I Was 17 3:53
2. All Done Wrong 3:26
3. Elijah The Prophet 4:22
4. When No One Calls 3:17
5. Next Time Around 5:19
6. Goodbyes Are Sad 3:50
7. She Was My Sweetheart 3:46
8. Everyone But Me 2:39
9. Wherever You Go (First Space Song) 3:51
10. Shedding The Mortal Coil 1:33
11. Samson 2:27
12. Prepare To Detour 3:30
"Live Tracks"
13. I Drive A Lot 2:50
14. Traffic Jam 3:36
15. Play The "C" Chord 3:53
16. Help Me When You're Gone 4:52
17. Card Games And Old Friends 3:12
18. Shut Your Mouth 2:48
19. No New Kinda Story 3:34
20. When You Feel The Mess 4:42