Search - Stardeath & White Dwarfs :: The Birth

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A. M. Gulan | The Moon | 07/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What an absolutely overwhelming way to announce yourselves to the world...Stardeath And White Dwarfs' "The Birth" is surreal...a genuine sonic smack in the face --- the likes of which I haven't received since (Stardeath And White Dwarfs' lead singer Dennis Coyne's genius-uncle Wayne Coyne's band) The Flaming Lips knocked my senses clear out the stratosphere back in 2002 with the astounding "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots". Now it is 2009, and in a year where The Flaming Lips are set to release another surely seminal, certainly space-saturated album (tentatively called "Embryonic"), is it possible that their Okie-kin may have beat them to the punch with an otherworldy and brilliant debut album? For the sake of their credibility, the music rag industry needs to just crown this as the album of the year, immediately. It's simply stunning. Brilliant from the first harmony all the way to the final fuzz, I can't believe this band is still, by and large, a well-kept secret. While other (read: lesser) tripped-out bands are getting all the press (ahem...Animal Collective), "The Birth" is an auditory buffet that I want to keep getting in line for, over and over and over. "I Can't Get Away" is impossible to get away from...which is either irony or brilliant artistry. I would tend to lean toward the latter, as the evidence of the band's sonic & poetic brilliance needs no further evidence than to listen to the brilliant conclusion to the heartwrenching "Country Ballad". If Stardeath and White Dwarfs didn't just blow their whole load in one massive shot, and actually have several bullets left in the chamber, this band has just punched a one-way ticket to their final resting place in that legendary shrine in Cleveland. Very rarely are debut albums this complete and impressive. The time spent with the Flaming Lips is flowing all throughout the album, tastefully, artfully, and originally. The obvious Pink Floyd influence is apparent, and will immediately draw comparison, which is fine by me. It's hardly a negative thing to be mentioned in their vein, and in this instance the sound is only subtly familiar...ideas have clearly been plucked from all sorts of genres and styles...ears could even hear a more psychedelic version of early Oasis, bits of STS9, and even some moe., but it is an adventure 100% worth taking...sadly only stretching a little over a half-hour. It immediately leaves you longing for more, and one can only hope that the band quickly gives us more and more of this beautiful, melodic freak-rock to satiate the inevitable thirst this album causes. I am so excited for the future of this band, but for now, all I know is that this album makes me not want to kill myself."