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All Star United Review

All Star United's self-titled debut is just plain F-U-N. The album is a bit of a paradox, providing mature, guitar-centric, bubble-gum pop music that somehow comes off as a serious contender without any pretense of taking itself seriously, like the President giving a speech on world economics in his undroos or fine dining at the Queen's estate eating lobster and Cocoa Puffs.

The use of the term "pop" music should be clarified so as to not be compared to the contrived plastic of boy bands or young girl icons usually associated with the term. In fact, while the album represents the debut of their incarnation as All Star United, the sum of the band members represents decades of experience.

Outside of his two album solo career, Ian Eskelin on lead vocals has had guitar, keyboard, or other collaboration history with no less than 10 previous bands, including the well known Newsboys and Code of Ethics. Patrick, the guitarist, also shared axe duties for the well-known synth act The Echoing Green. Christian Crowe backed Ian up on drums during his solo career, and Gary rounds out the act on bass. While Ian wrote most of the tracks on the tail end of his solo career, their combined efforts has brought a success to a whole new level above anything seen by them individually. In the year of its release, the album produced many rankings in the top 5 and a couple number one hits.

The band does an excellent job of poking fun at the industry it has so much experience with. `Smash Hit' takes a jab directly at the packaging of this whole Jesus thing, shemlessly referencing overpriced merchandise and image exploitation of Christianity. It even gets personal with my personal favorite, `La La Land', setting the stage from the start with reference to those with their Jesus bumper stickers in the hopes that it will somehow save them from that speeding ticket.

The appeal of the album lies in the fact that this style of honest / sarcastic exposure is usually only found in more angst-ridden genres. The songs cover the spectrum of emotions and do touch on a serious side, from relationships with others to a relationship with God. It is kept light-hearted throughout the album, though, right down to Ian's aunt singing into a playschool recorder hidden on the end of the last track.

You will be hard pressed to find a better pop-album on the market. Outstanding vocals, guitars, synth, and the occasional organ backdrop make for fun ride starting in La La Land and ending with a Lullaby.

Review by: The Edge Radio, Amazon.com