Review:
'MARSHALL STAR'
'Uncontrollable'
- Label: 'Furry Records'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: '2004'- Catalogue No: 'kcf114'
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Our Rating:
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This is a not bad stab at an invented pop music with flagons of funk, electro, r&b, glam rock and disco pretensions. Vocally, It has a very rich SAM BROWN / RUBY TURNER expressiveness with an ANNIE LENNOX reminiscence in the phrasing. And that's some pretty high level emulation. And when anything else falters, Mandy Sharp's fine voice is there for the rescue attempt.
There are eleven tracks: eleven pages in a pattern book Each one sketches out some ideas, flourishes a little wild instrumentation, and bigs up the voice. But not one has a song that makes the big effort of listening 100% no-questions-asked worthwhile. There are patterns but no pictures and it's hard to find a story. The front cover artwork probably tells you a lot about what you need to know. The inside cover photo has the MARSHALL STAR duo wearing underwear, very deliberate stripes of splodgy black paint and bizarrely contrasting facial expressions that confuse the hell out of me. Humour? Won’t they mess up the sheets? Whose idea was this? Dark symbolism? Esoteric fetishism? No idea.
"My Love" at track four has an edgy hint at the night, with some noise elements that lay claim to being alternative. But then it goes into a piano chord moment with a solo voice being more nasal than it should be and singing about "a magic carpet ride" like some 15 year old r&b wannabe from Staines. A bit odd.
"Never Met A Man" has the Adam and the Ants drum sound and the glam rock swagger. There are flickers of SUZI QUATTRO and TINA TURNER in the vocal track. "Love is All" goes to YAZOO Land and "Dream On" comes back via EURHYTHMICS Junction. "Will You (Turn it up) has a hint of BASEMENT JAXX that just sharpens up my anxiety about the fuziness of the production and the softness of the bass sound in general.
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"Sweet Sensation" really does emphasise the shakiness of MARSHALL STAR'S lyric writing. The words have an improvised feel to them that you might expect in a rehearsal room while the song is being worked on. But for public consumption "You’re my sweet sensation. When you hit the nation. Hit the national spot. I thought it was a good plot." (and so on till finish) is really substandard stuff. The whole set is printed out, so you can check. Clichés apart there are a lot of lines that just make no sense at all. "Will you turn and see me. When we're together there's no reason why." Why what ... ? Who cares? When you have a proper singer on board, you can’t complain if your listener pays attention to the words she's singing.
In summary, it’s an album with a ferocious vocal talent crying out for a song to sing and a production to make it stand up and walk proud.
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author: Sam Saunders
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I LOVED THE ALBUM , IT IS TOTALLY UNIQUE... THIS BAND ARE GREAT..
By Mark Fisher
Wow. It’s been said that you should never judge a book by its cover, and that is the case with the UK’s Marshall Star. Uncontrollable is the band’s first full length release, and if there is any justice in the world, this project will turn some heads their way.
Uncontrollable is a tremendously creative mix of R&B, soul, and avant-garde indie rock. Imagine Annie Lennox, The New Radicals, Cathy Dennis, and The Pixies in a blender. ...shortened comments
------------- Author: sweetsweetmusic
16 May 2008
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Marshall Star
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