Staff pick of the week...
This week...Michael picks it!

Artist: Starsailor Title: Silence Is Easy Price: $15.75 CD	Tracks on this CD:
	Music Was Saved
	Fidelity
	Some Of Us
	Silence Is Easy
	Telling Them
	Shark Food
	Bring My Love
	White Dove
	Four To The Floor
	Born Again
	Restless Heart
	Could You Be Mine?
	At The End Of A Show

Britpop. I’ve liked it in most of its forms going back to the original British Invasion and in more recent years, Suede, Blur, Oasis, and Pulp all released albums that were in my CD changer for long periods. From the new generation, of which Coldplay seems to be the undisputed commercial leader, Starsailor is far and away my top choice. The band’s debut “Love Is Here” quickly became one of my 2002 favorites and seeing the band play live on a cool evening outside Champaign’s Assembly Hall solidified Starsailor’s “Michael-and-his-Britpop” frontrunner status. Sure, I’ve toyed with Travis and Turin Brakes in between Starsailor releases, but the new album “Silence Is Easy” reaffirmed my love. Hyped because Phil Spector recorded two of the band’s songs, “Silence” begins with “Music Was Saved,” the album’s most driving number (and my bet to open live shows), before shifting back into guitar driven orchestrated pop that is the band’s strength. The criticisms I’ve read about the band often focus on James Walsh’s voice, which to my ears sounds like The Waterboys’ Mike Scott. That’s a good thing. I’m already penciling “Silence Is Easy” in my tops of 2004 list. Sure, they’re preaching to the converted, and it’s still a long year, but it will take three albums each by Phoenix, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and John Cunningham, plus the forthcoming Kevin Tihista CD to knock “Silence Is Easy” out of my top 10.