CDNOW agrees with you amanda:
*Starsailor's 21-year-old singer James Walsh is so enraptured with Jeff Buckley -- emotive vocals, emotional baggage and all -- that Love Is Here plays like his interpretation of how the follow-up to the late Buckley's Grace debut would have sounded. Considering the British quartet's swelling dynamics, Walsh's raw-nerved emoting, and shockingly similar vocal timbre, it's not at all a stretch to envision a proper second studio set from Buckley sounding like this had it ever arrived.
However overpowering the Buckley homage, Love Is Here is an undeniably powerful collection of songs that strikes a keen balance between all-guns-blazing theatrics ("Poor Misguided Fool"), the stark raving depressing ("Alcoholic") and exhaling comedowns ("She Just Wept"). But similar to the Radiohead-lite maneuvers of fellow Brits Coldplay, the bright spots (of which there are a fair share) are dulled by the facsimile presentation.
That said, even money says that Starsailor ends up finding an identity all their own. Walsh shows too much potential as a songwriter, vocalist and a true presence for the band to be cut-rate Buckley for much longer.*
Patrick Berkery
CDNOW Contributing Writer