Starling Sustainer Time Bomb Recordings, 2000 Buy it online Tracks 1: Don't Deflate 2: Earnest 3: Die Hard Crush 4: Delusional 5: Superfrayed 6: If I Could Do 7: Louise 8: Everything in the World 9: Celibate 10: Best Behavior 11: Homely 12: Deliver Me   Reviewed by David Middleton	With the release of their self-produced debut album, Sustainer, Starling has come through with some pleasingly crafted, angst-ridden songs. Though sticking to the basic pop/rock formula -- love won, love lost, love sucks -- Starling's sound and lyrical content is fresh and intelligent. As the album spins out, Sustainer runs through the gamut of standard relationship emotions: remorse, passion, elation, jealousy -- the usuals. Yo-yoing and rollercoastering through relationships desired, vanished, destructive, obsessive or never had might sound too depressing to even bother. But then you could say that 95 per cent of all music is about the emotional turmoil of love. While Starling is not breaking any new ground in the I'm-such-a-loser-why-doesn't-anybody-love-me school of song writing, what you do get is something that's a bit more irreverent and with more sense of humor about itself than standard issue Top 40 fare. I swallow passion's bitter pill A thousand bugs adorn my grill I drive until I can't see you no more I jump the bridge and clear the gap I spill a soda in my lap And I can hear right now just what you'd say Well there's a thousand things up in space just floating around And there's a thousand things you can find laying right on the ground And there's a thousand things you will hear if you don't make a sound But I bet my dirty dishes that my wishes never leave the ground I've got everything I want in the world except you Starling comes across with 12 mostly upbeat, guitar driven, retro-sounding tunes. Guitarist, songwriter and lead singer, Ian LeFeuvre, has a knack for writing hook-laden songs with just enough influences to pay homage to the past without becoming derivative -- though "If I Could Do"'s guitar riff does sound suspiciously similar to "Fixing a Hole" from The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album. As LeFeuvre's voice gets put through its paces -- and a filter or two -- the result is a fascinating mix of pop idol, soulful loser and whining boy. The album starts off with the line, "It's a shame I've gotta start out like this whining boy," a theme which runs throughout and showcases Starling's tongue-in-cheek understanding of the lovelorn they often poke fun at. After all, if the popular love-gone-wrong song is nothing more than griping, lamenting and bemoaning about love that has indeed gone wrong, why not just come right out and whine about it? Which doesn't mean that the songs are filled with nothing more than sniveling and groaning, more like goodnatured twisted irony. Starling has found a sound that in someone else's hands might well become overpolished. As it is, the self-produced Sustainer comes off with a gritty luster and just enough of a rough edge to make it sound spontaneous without being contrived. It's tough enough just to come up with an album's worth of listenable songs -- never mind recording, producing and engineering them yourself -- and Starling does an admirable job on all counts. And though some of the lyrics can be silly ("Baby I've been bad/And it makes me sad") and the chord progressions are sometimes predictable, for the most part Sustainer is a solid mix of everything, giving your ears a good sonic thrashing on "Superfrayed", "Everything I Want in the World" and "Louise," solid pop tunery on "Don't Deflate," "Delusional," "If I Could Do" and "Best Behavior," and the poignant, atmospheric ballads "Die Hard Crush," "Homely" and "Deliver Me." Sustainer is a great first effort and I'm looking forward to listening to any bitching and moaning they do in the future. | July 2000 David Middleton is the art director of Blue Coupe magazine and while he has done his share of musical whining in the past, it still never got him a record contract.	Starling has found a sound that in someone else's hands might well become overpolished. As it is, the self-produced Sustainer comes off with a gritty luster and just enough of a rough edge to make it sound spontaneous without being contrived.