Galaxy Safari
Star of the masquerade
Granat Records
The type of music that Sweden's Galaxy Safari play can often fall into the abyss of boredom that only a handful of bands have successfully managed to escape. Big players like Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Unida and, to a lesser extent, Liberty 37 and Galactic Cowboys are all referenced here in one way or another and show that Galaxy Safari are adept at mimicking their outer influences and stamping their own initials on the outcome. However, an essential aspect that's quite often lost on a great number of bands attempting to follow this path is the concept of tempo variation and this is also a problem on "Star of the masquerade". The vast majority of songs on here follow the mid-upbeat tempo characteristic of this genre and it unfortunately detracts from an otherwise pleasing album. It's not so much that the album isn't enjoyable, rather it loses its potential impact by failing to address the need for variation in this area. Sure, tracks like opener "Save me" and "Far too long" kick the speed up a tad, but that's not exactly what it's about. It's about more divergence within the songs and without it we have an album that is disappointingly generic in feel and quickly tiring. It also, however, shows a band with the potential to pull a great recording out of the bag if they knuckle down and take some time to be creative instead of going for the quick fix.
- John Norby
