Star Collector - Flash-Arrows & The Money Shot

  by Andrew Carver

published: 7 / 2 / 2005

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Review

Star Collector have ties with a host of prominent Canadian acts like the Grapes of Wrath, Zumpano and the Salteens, have garnered airplay across the nation, rave reviews, and produced the memorably named 'Flash-Arrow & The Money Shot' in just two weeks. "Why have I never heard of these musical geniuses? Why has their fame not traveled beyond their frosty homeland?" you ask. Well, first, they come from Vancouver so their homeland is more damp than frosty. Second, I'm a Canuck, and I've never heard of them, either. This is what happens when you stop listening to music-video television, I guess.Their muscular pop music would sit nicely besides bands like Sloan and Detroit's Moods for Moderns. The band claims to be inspired by "decadent 70's Americana while maintaining their unabashed love of 1960's British power-pop." While politeness says take their word for it, I notice my automatic translation software just rendered the phrase in quotes as "The Posies" What won't computers do these days, eh? Vic Wayne's vocals aren't as sweet as they were in his Grapes days; the slightly strangled sound begs comparison with the late Sean Greenaway of sundry Aussie combos. Monteith's backing vocals do add some gilding, and the album rocks along at a merry pace. The production does a superb job of catching the crunch - of which there's quite a bit - and any guitar-based band looking for a studio team might want to think about scanning the production credits (the band did the producing, while Neko Case techy Ryen Froggatt pushed the sliders. 'Flash-Arrows and The Money Shot' is a very solid pop-rock album and if it thinks a little highly of itself, well, it has its reasons.

Track Listing:-

1 Love And All It Kills
2 Firebird
3 Overpass
4 Bounty On The Mutiny
5 Gold (A Torch Song)
6 Start To Shine
7 Get It For Free!
8 Forty Below
9 Not Amused Anymore
10 Your Defining Moment
11 In Spite Of Me
12 Another Pop Cliche