It’s hard not to compare the predominantly Aussie band Godstar’s full length CD ‘Sleeper’ to the mighty Lemonheads.  There are too many connections for those comparisons to be avoided.  Godstar are led by Smudge founders Tom Morgan (co-writer of some of ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads) and Nic Dalton (sometime Lemonheads bassist).  Those Lemonheads connections are cemented further here, as chief Lemonhead Dando guests on drums, alongside Alison Galloway of ‘Alison’s Starting To Happen’ fame.  So, with all that in mind, you’ll obviously approach this album with a pre-conceived idea of what you’ll get…and you wouldn’t be wrong.

Chiming power pop guitars are much in evidence through ‘Single’, a Teenage Fanclub styled pop song; ‘Everything You Give Me Breaks’ is harder, with a slightly more interesting arrangement, almost like ‘Lick’-era Lemonheads delivered with an Aussie accent.  ‘Bad Bad Implications’ sees Alison on lead vocals and again, proves decent guitar driven pop; ‘Every Now And Again’ is acoustic, but the crashing noises at the end always make me think this is unfinished somehow.  The acoustic also leads ‘Forgotten Night’ which has a simple but pleasing 60s style electric twang as counterpart.

If you’re looking for harder edged punky style tunes, you get those too in the shape of ‘Little Bit About’ and ‘Ersatz’.  ‘Lie Down Forever’, for me, is this album’s greatest achievement, though; although still recognisable as a Morgan/Dalton composition, the jangly guitars are slightly louder, more shoegaze rock than indie pop.

If you like this kind of thing, it’ll probably never replace ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ or ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ in your affections, but it’s certainly more consistent than Dalton’s other project, Sneeze.  If you think this is for you, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

October 2007