On their debut album, The Weight of Change (Brother Starling), the Philadelphia based band Brother Starling offers up an exciting mixture of soulful rock, country, folk, and funk to create a record that emphatically states that while life, love, and change is hard for all of us, that’s no reason to quit. The temporal nature of our lives and loves and the pressures that come along with them permeate the record and inform all of the tracks, as does the will to survive and the desire to rise above one’s personal circumstances.
This is a tough-minded set of nine songs from these boys from Philly that combine masterful playing, strong songwriting, and soaring and emotional vocals to create an extremely promising and high-powered first record.
Some of the song highlights include the summer driving playlist ready ‘Cobbled Streets,” the unbridled love song “You and Me,” the affecting and Springsteenesque “Twenty Years,” the poignant and steel guitar-driven The Air,” the funk-laden “Madmen,” and the spirited apex of the record, the moving and passionate “Are We Together.”
It is this last song, “Are We Together,” that not only deserves to serve as a singalong anthem for our times but should also serve to cement Brother Starling as a band to watch in the future.
Over a slowly building melody and beat, lead singer Geremiah Giampa delivers an inspired set of lyrics such as “If we are one, we will survive/ in the ashes we will rise” leading to an impassioned crescendo of words that should give any current day listener chills.
“Are we together? Are we together? / I don’t know. I don’t know“, Giampa sings over and over again in the fervent and rousing chorus, sentiments we can all relate to as we stand and face our common uncertain and tenuous future.
The Weight Of Change by Brother Starling is available on their website .
Credits:Geremiah Giampa (vocals / guitar / keyboards) , Tom Mellon (drums / vocals) , Brian Fin (bass) ,
Mike Rusch (guitar), Joe Ryan (guitar/keyboards/vocals), Produced and Engineered by Derek Chafin