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“GLASGOW indie band The Starlets are big in Japan and relatively pint-sized in their homeland, where their traditional twee-pop sound is proudly out of step with prevailing trends. Their third album hosts a selection of delicate, breathy ballads, garnished with some sumptuous string arrangements and wistful sentiments beside the occasional upbeat canter...” The Scotsman The Starlets have made three staggeringly beautiful albums, all occupying a beguiling sonic landscape somewhere between My Bloody Valentine, the Blue Nile, Michael Nyman, Prefab Sprout and Judy Garland. Inspired in part by alternative guitar pop and old string-laden movie soundtracks, The Starlets lush debut album won "Jockrock Album of the Year", and was included in the "Is this Music" top 100 albums by Scottish artists. |
The band continued to gain a wider audience with the release of the second album "Further into night forever" (2003), which also gained critical success and brought the band to the attention of the Japanese label Muzak which licensed the record and promoted The Starlets' first ever live performances in Tokyo. Their third album, "Out into the days from here" was released on the band's own label, Stereotone Records and is available in Japan on Fastcut Records where it sold out its first pressing of 1000 in the first week of release, following a two week sold-out tour of Japan. Given all this, it's arguably cheating slightly to put The Starlets in “The Best of New Scottish Music" category, but we consider we consider them to be vastly underrated (like Odeon Beatclub). Despite pre-dating contemporaries in the literary Scot-pop pantheon and having some seminal moments tucked away in their unjustly niche back-catalogue, The Starlets have never quite managed to inspire the same levels of devotion in their homeland as they have in Japan. |
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