Starfish Stories - Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula

I love the new album from Starfish Stories - Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula - free download at http://bit.ly/7ZyPeI and this is why.

Firstly, you need to get past that:

a) It has the word "nebula" in its title track. What the heck is a nebula?
b) It has a blue green planet as a backdrop in its album cover! Which makes it look like a soundtrack for a sci fi documentary.

Get past that and bring your ears really close to this seashell of an album and it whispers at you with feeling and deep personal expression. Now, that's true appeal. The album which tries its best on first impression to be un-sexy and then surprises you with wave after wave of pure enjoyment.

So lets get intimately acquainted with the songs and a few tracks which really got me.

The title track is "Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula". You know that the guitar instrumentals are emoting the poetry when your hair starts to stand when you hear the track, and I mean that in a good way. A nebula is a cluster of gases in the midst of becoming a star. Even though I've never been close to a star, this track brings you close to imagining what it would be like to be a speck of gas - invisible and insignificant, then becoming a star. For me, this track emotes hope.

"We Wonder" is the sort of song which would make me cry on cold wet rainy days and I am recalling something sad. Damn, it would hurt so good.

"Stroke of Midnight" starts with dirty guitar riffs and shows off some mean guitar work. Do these guys really have day jobs which don't involve music coz they play real good! And its not just the technicality of the guitar work, its the raw and personal expression which would make me scream my head off if I watched the Starfish band guys play live.

"To be Free" - pretty keyboard work, even prettier guitar work and it falls on the ear like a gentle breeze. Check out the shredding at the end of the track. Class.

"Run towards the Sky" - my only quarrel with this song is that it sounds a bit like an Olympic song which makes it also likeable coz' it makes you believe that anything is possible.

Nebula. Planets. Stars. Whatever. The Crystal Tears album touches me on a human level and it is truly romantic, that 2 guys are making this music in a corner of their universe and launching it out like a nebula.

One last thing, I would totally pay for this album if released commercially.