Flyleaf – Between The Stars

Female fronted, multi-platinum American rockers Flyleaf are back with their fourth studio album. Their first since former vocalist and founding member Lacy Sturm left the band in 2012. “Between The Stars” is due for release via earMUSIC/Loud & Proud Records in November 2014.

Opening with a rhythmic fuzz filled bass line, ‘Set Me On Fire’ is the first single to be taken from the album and quite possibly the perfect introduction to new vocalist Kristen May. Taking inspiration from Veronica Roth’s novel ‘Divergent’, it’s a song about love, life, beauty and finding yourself along the way.

If fact these are themes that are prominent throughout, and there is a real positive energy about the songwriting and delivery of each of these songs. That’s not to say everything on here is sunshine and rainbows, ‘Blue Roses’ takes on the darker subject of domestic violence and ‘Traitor’ is a brooding rocker about the betrayal of friendship.

http://youtu.be/BB8z9DjMVto

‘City Kids’ is a striking and haunting song that tells a story of long lost love and the frustration of  regret. It is perhaps the darkest sounding song of all on offer; it is also the most ballad like song on the record. The vibrato guitar effect is seems so simple but adds a huge amount of atmosphere to the song, making it a real highlight of the album.

As with previous Flyleaf releases, I can imagine some of these songs doing well extremely well commercially in TV shows or movie soundtracks. ‘Between The Stars’ stays true to a winning formula that has seen them yield a fair amount of success in the U.S.
May’s vocals, are strong and carry the songs well, though to my ears they lack just a little bit of the individual quirkiness of previous vocalist Lacy Sturm. That being said, this is a first class radio-friendly rock album that I would be more than happy to spin. It would also be a most welcome change to the ‘X-Factor’ type pop-production line wannabe crap we currently get on our mainstream radio in the UK/Ireland, and with this release it would be great to see them break into the mainstream & continue to build on their success on this side of the pond.

Track Listing: 

1. Set Me On Fire
2. Magnetic
3. Traitor
4. Platonic
5. Head Underwater
6. Sober Serenade
7. Thread
8. Marionette
9. Well Of Lies
10. City Kids
11. Blue Roses
12. Home
13. Avalanche (Bonus Track)
14. Ship Of Fools (Bonus Track)
15. Tied To The Broken (Bonus Track)
16. City Kids (Live) (Bonus Track)
17. The Hunted (Bonus Track)
18. The wedding (Bonus Track)

Band Lineup:
Kristen May – Vocals
Sameer Bhattacharya – Guitar
Jared Hatmann – Guitar
Pat Seals – Bass
James Culpepper – Drums

Band Links:
http://www.flyleafmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/flyleafmusic
https://twitter.com/flyleafmusic