First released in 2006, then reissued in August
2008 by Bar None, Starling Electric's debut album, Clouded Staircase, belongs in the same
genre of lo-fi, chopped-up power-pop pioneered by Guided By Voices, except that
Starling Electric bandleader Caleb Dillon has a different set of obsessions
than GBV's Robert Pollard. Pollard is all about The Who, The Beatles, and trace
elements of '70s prog; Dillon prefers the sunny sounds of '60s SoCal. Clouded
Staircase moves
freely from the baroque Beach Boys riff of "Camp-Fire" to the sparkly
guitar-pop of "Black Ghost/Black Girl," and though the album is sometimes so
eclectic in approach that it lacks focus, Starling Electric holds the record
together with the quality of its performance—far more intricate and
accomplished than the average indie-rock act—and the breadth of its
enthusiasm. Listening to this album is a lot like spending a happy afternoon
with a group of unpretentious archivists as they pull one discovery after
another out of their collections, saying, "Yes, but have you heard this?"