Track Listing

1. In The Crossfire
2. Counterfeit Life
3. In My Blood
4. Faith Hope Love
5. I Don’t Know
6. Way Back Home
7. Keep Us Together
8. Get Out While You Can
9. This Time
10. White Light
11. Jeremiah

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16899 in Music
• Released on: 2005-10-17
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Perhaps there's something just a little bit autobiographical to be deduced from the album title. Starsailor’s third album On The Outside finds yesterday's next-big-thing fighting a defiant rear guard action against fading fortunes and particularly the tepid reception afforded to their last studio outing, Silence Is Easy. Starsailor's response to potential critical excommunication is to sound more devout about their oevre than ever before with the curling, overwrought vocals of James Walsh and the sang-froid of Barry Westhead's organ cementing a wall-of-sound that former producer Phil Spector never managed.

While they've hit on a singular signature and milked it for all it's worth--the plangent, acoustic murder-ballad "Jeremiah" being the most noticeable deviation from the script--On The Outside tenders Starsailor’s most full-blooded assault on the "big breakthrough" to date with the angsty metropolitan blues of "I Don't Know" and the single "In The Crossfire"--among others--destined to increase the band's commercial currency. --Kevin Maidment

From the Label
Starsailor return with their third album,‘On The Outside. Starsailor never stopped working, they continuously toured, only pausing to write and record their new album, and in the process have created an impassioned statement, a record of real honesty and urgency. Much of the record was recorded live which has aided the directness and captured the passion. Galvanised like never before, the band have produced their best work to date. Featuring the fantastic comeback single "In The Crossfire", the band's new album On The Outside was produced by Rob Schnapf (Beck, The Vines, Elliott Smith) and looks set to take the band to the new heights they deserve.

CD Description
'On The Outside' is the third album by Jeff Buckley-influenced indie rockers Starsailor. Combining often intense and overtly political lyrical matter with intense and sometimes dark acoustic balladry, the album marks a change in direction of sorts for the Chorley-based four-piece. Includes the single 'In The Crossfire'.

Customer Reviews

Third time lucky
For me, not many albums could top Starsailor's Love Is Here. From the awesome opener Tie Up My Hands to the fantastic closing piece, Coming Down, the album was a thing of true musical beauty.

Two years on, out came Silence Is Easy. Whilst good, it was incredibly short and not a patch on Love Is Here. Poor sales of Silence meant that Starsailor were facing an uphill battle to burst back onto the music scene.

October 2005 is hardly the easiest time to launch your comeback album, with the likes of Coldplay, The Killers and Kaiser Chiefs dominating the charts, but this effort is superb and really hasn't got the credit it deserves yet.

It's got to be a good start when the opening track can easily be considered one of the artist's finest efforts to date, and that's the case with In The Crossfire, brilliantly showcasing the band's new, more mature sound. From the moment James Walsh spits out the opening lyric 'I don't see myself when I look in the mirror' to the close three and a half minutes later, it's easily the best track on the album.

The next song, Counterfeit Life, is similar, loud, rocky and, some might say, borderline Muse. In My Blood, following on, is much more sedate, with a sound similar to Silence Is Easy's Four To The Floor - a cross between the soft sounds of, say, Tie Up My Hands and the brash Counterfeit Life.

Faith Hope Love and I Don't Know are good but relatively plain songs, but the record picks up again with Way Back Home, another Muse-style track with a great guitar riff. Keep Us Together, too, is excellent, another product of the group's developed sound.

The quiet but infectious Get Out While You Can follows before the ridiculously catchy This Time, the much rockier White Light and the hugely poignant closer, the beautifully melancholy Jeremiah.

Starsailor have really risen to the challenge here. Whilst not quite up there with Love Is Here, this is definitely superior to Silence Is Easy. Come to think of it, it's far superior than most of the music out there today. Buy it.

surprising third record from the forgotten band
Starsailor shot to prominance on the indie music scene with their debut Love Is Here in 2001, along with Coldplay and the like they were hailed as the next big thing. I loved their debut record but the singles released from their second offering, Silence Is Easy, failed to convince me that it was worth buying. Since then Starsailor fell off the radar altogther and I for one had forgotten they existed, save for the occasions when I wanted to listen to some of the sweet melodies and heartwarming lyrics from Love Is Here. Out of the blue in autumn last year Starsailor came back with single In The Crossfire and I was amazed at what I heard - surely this wasn't the piano tinkering harmless indie band of yesteryear?

Whether it was the criticism they recieved after Silence Is Easy that motivated them to write this record or not I don't know but it really is quite remarkable. Evident here is the kind of angst and anger usually associated with Nirvana. Ok this no Nevermind but it sure is grungy at times and the lyrics have taken on a personal sadness and even a political edge. Starsailor have really moved on admirably from their last album, emphasizing their songs with guitar riffs now in a way I would never have expected from them. It's a real progression and one that could have backfired, but then they didn't have much to left to lose.

The album is by no means flawless, and it losses momentum somewhat towards the end which is why I could only award four stars. But it finishes with the superb acoustic, thought provoking, Jeremiah. Starsailor have certainly come back in a big way - surprising indeed.

Meat on those bones please!
I've said it before and I'll say it again - you either like Starsailor or you hate them. The vocal is distinctive, the subject matter quite bleak, but the tunes are always good. This is the third album, and the first thing you note is that they've bought a few more amplifiers. Place this album in a shuffle playlist with anything else and you have to turn it waaay down to avoid being deafened.

The tunes are all still there. In The Crossfire sets the tone for a more rock-charged album, and Jeremiah is a mournful epilogue, based on a true story.

But, as with both the previous albums, it's just too short!