The previous Lael Neale album took me by surprise. Following a Twitter recommendation from our good friends at Record Culture, I stuck it on with little expectation but found a hugely engrossing, haunting, and unusual set of quiet folk songs that sometimes felt so sparse that you might get totally lost in them. Star Eaters Delight surprised me for different reasons. Opening song ‘I Am The River’ is in may ways opposed to the songs we heard on the debut – it isn’t classic folk with an ethereal twist and is, instead, a lively, almost danceable number with a simple chorus of ‘ba bad a ba bad a ba ba ba da.’ After the mystical and sometimes impenetrable lyrics of the previous work, this is a huge shock and a great way to show that an artist who could seem to have limitations can use her skills in a variety of ways.
The primary instrument on the new record is still Lael’s Omnichord, so that ethereal, weird buzz still hovers over many of the songs. But on tracks like the opener, and later song ‘Faster Than The Medicine’, she has added a more driven and straightforward guitar sound to her work. She makes this adjustment extremely well, though, with those songs being among the many album highlights. It might also make her music slightly more accessible, particularly to Picky Bastards colleagues of mine who didn’t quite get the first LP.
That’s not to say that the more singular sound is absent here, with tracks like ‘If I Had No Wings’ and ‘Lead Me Blind’ still feeling like perfect examples of the sound that first attracted me. As a whole, though, Star Eaters Delight soars above its predecessor because of the fascinating variation in the songs and the way that Lael still sounds so distinct and uniquely herself at every turn. I can’t think of many other artists who could pull off the creepy, also scary sound of ‘In Verona’ before later switching to the almost sweet and simplistic sound of the wonderful ‘No Holds Barred’ – an album standout that might remind you of early Angel Olsen.
It would have been easy to say, after her first album on Sub Pop, that we were looking at an interesting artist but one who would struggle to maintain the interest due to her style and the limits of her interest. Lael smashes that opinion to pieces here. Not only does she provide us with an album that is massively different to her previous work, but she brings one that flits and darts in so many different directions as you make your way through. It’s an album still full of oddness and personality, but one that takes those qualities and lifts them to somewhere where more listeners will feel comfortable. After seeing her play this album live just a few weeks ago, too, I have to say that my excitement about her career only grew – on stage these songs come to a new life, performed with authenticity and power. Star Eaters Delight deserves a much wider audience than it’s currently receiving.
Words by Fran Slater
Picky Bastards 
Leave a comment