Given the recent popularity of New Wave revival acts, and the ever-present infatuation the indie set has for New York, you’d think stellastarr* would be shoo-ins for the type of success their fellow New Yorkers, Interpol, have found. As it happens, at the release of their second album stellastarr* are still one of New York City’s best-kept secrets.

Harmonies For The Haunted is a very different album than stellastarr*, and you know what? That’s a good thing. But while making a departure from their debut, their sound hasn’t changed so drastically that what made them stellastarr* is gone, unlike other bands releasing sophomore efforts this year (Franz, I’m lookin’ at you, kids).

The album’s opening, ‘Lost In Time’, isn’t what one would expect, with a soft piano intro that wouldn’t have been out of place on Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and quickly turns into a lush arrangement reminiscent of The Cure’s ‘A Letter to Elise’. Second track ‘Damn This Foolish Heart’ is more familiar territory, as are ‘Sweet Troubled Soul’, the first single, and ‘Born In a Flea Market’. All have the same level of urgency present in every track of the first album. The rest of the album is slightly softer around the edges, and though it hasn’t got another ‘Jenny’ or ‘My Coco’, that’s perfectly okay. Harmonies For The Haunted is a maturer sound, more a “sway quietly with your eyes shut and let the sound wash over you” sort of album. Aside from a slightly slower sound, this is still the same band, though. Their best asset, the backing harmonies courtesy of bassist Amanda Tannen, are still present, and even stronger on this album, with those on third track ‘The Diver’ proving particularly elegant. Eighth track ‘When I Disappear’ has a sound reminiscent of Interpol, albeit an Interpol with better lyrics.

All in all, it’s a solid second effort from one of the better New Wave revivalist bands around. Burn your Killers stuff and play this instead, mmkay? You’ll be glad you did.

Harmonies For The Haunted was released 13 September 2005 in the US on RCA Records. No official UK release date as yet.

Links:

• stellastarr*
• RCA Records

Once again we bring you our usual snide roundup of magazines on newsstands right now.

Blender: “Hot 100”. I can almost guarantee you there isn’t a single artist on this list we like. Ok, so there’s The Arcade Fire. One. Big deal.

Disorder: Bloc Party. Yes, we still like them. Shut up. Although we admit that if called to stand seconds in the next Kele/Eddie Argos brawl, we’re in Eddie’s corner. Sorry, Kele.

Fader: Um. It’s all hip hop this time around. We feel we aren’t qualified to say anything further at this point, as that’s not really our thing. And if we did, somebody might come round and cut a bitch, so we’ll be nice and not confess we really, really hate rap, so we won’t be buying this one.

Filter: The new Fall issue hits stands the 16th. Look out for Franz Ferdinand on the cover and article by the guys in the band, as well as an interview with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher. We’ll probably also read it for the interviews with The Cribs and The Magic Numbers. Well done Filter, gold star.

i-D: Another fashion magazine with their take on the current London scene. Look out for The Others, Selfish Cunt’s Martin Tomlinson, and Pete Doherty. Don’t mind us, we’ll just be over here snickering quietly to ourselves.

L’Uomo Vogue: We are informed the current issue has a feature on a bunch of English bands right now, their second of the year, actually. If anyone’s got more details than that, do email one of us and share. We’re having a hard time finding this one on our own in our respective BFE outposts. What’s with all this haute couture interest in the scruffy bands now anyway, huh?

Mojo: Never mind the cover feature on Led Zeppelin. ‘70s cock-rock is so passé. What might be worth checking out: article on 2-Tone, interviews with Devendra Banhart and everyone’s favourite Irish lesbian Rastafarian nutter, Sinèad O’Connor.

Plan B: August/September issue features those utterly legendary New Yorkers, Sonic Youth. Who, if you don’t know, are awesome, and why the hell don’t you anyway? Kim Gordon = feminist rock chick icon. Fact. Also a review of the new CocoRosie.

Q: Franz Ferdinand grace one version of the cover of this one. You can also get it with the Rolling Stones, if you’d rather. Interviews with both, and a celebration of the tenth anniversary of Blur vs Oasis. If you were on the Oasis side you were clearly in the wrong. We’re just saying.

Rockpile: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, whose new album is surprisingly nonsucktacular, and the quirky girls from CocoRosie.

Rolling Stone: Oh, look. Coldplay. Next, please!

Spin: Death Cab For Cutie, yet another feature on Houston hip hop. This issue’s kind of boring. We pass.

Vice: The version that’s out in the US and Canada right now has a small piece cribbed from the NME on Arctic Monkeys, who, if you’re anything like us and a bunch of other internet-savvy kids, you’ve heard about months ago anyway. We know, we know.

If we’ve missed anything, give us a comment. Well-done snark will get you a brownie, but a simple rundown is also welcome.