Star 99: Gaman

I feel like I got a little hornswoggled on this one. What starts off as pop punk quickly devolves into mid-90s twee Juliana Hatfield worship. Ands maybe some Teenage Fanclub dalliances. Before kind of veering back into power pop territory. And it makes me wonder if perhaps the whole concept of an album has broken down in the 2020s. Not that a band can’t mess with their formula in the span of ten tracks, but I have to make a call if I’m going to listen to an entire album to review on this site. That’s a good — let’s see — 25 minutes out of my life in the case of Gaman.

When you start your album with a song called “Kill” which has no less than one “fucks” you better follow through on that promise. It’s not as if I expected Hole from this band or something, or even The Muffs, but it’s a shame to build up that energy right off the bat and then just kind of cruise into mid-tempo tunes — some of it verging on schmaltz. It’s like the Gen Z kids can only hang onto anger or hot emotion for only so long. Which apparently is about two minutes. I mean they’ll tell you exactly how they’re feeling about just about everything, but for some reason their music is just not… angry. Sad, yes. But not pissed. Maybe it’s because they had Gen-X parents who liked rock ‘n’ roll, didn’t tell them to cut their hair and were ecstatic when their kids liked their music about hating their parents and getting out of their town filled with small people and small minds. Granted, Star 99 is neither of those things. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what this band is about.

Thing is, this record is completely fine. It’s a little fun in places. A little chill in others. As I mentioned, there are definitely some mid-90s college radio vibes wafting off this thing. You’ll immediately feel it with Saoirse Alesandro’s cutesy indie rock voice and some well-placed (though a little calculated) guitar squeal-y feedback. It certainly won’t blow you away with its uniqueness or edge, but will tickle that nostalgia itch if you were a fan of female-led bands of that age. Honestly, the album gets better on a second play through, though it’s ultimately more of a background listen than a front-burner spin.