Single Review: Hope is a Universe

Like Peter Weller’s Buckaroo Banzai – neurosurgeon, rockstar, and experimental hypersonic vehicle pilot - Steve Starke is a man of many talents. Crack realtor by day, hit musician on other days, nights, and probably weekends.

We’re all part-time musicians here. If music was a full-time job, we’d all leave our offices immediately. Some shouldn’t…  My introduction to Starke with the track Hope is a Universe proves he could make it in an economy that still placed value in art.

The song was born of the collaborative Outland Sessions, an annual gathering of musicians holding a week-long recording session in Pahiatua. The idea is you can contribute to as many songs as you want, but there is one that is yours. It’s not an event I’d heard of before, but it’s a concept I wholly support. I’ve enjoyed looking back over previous sessions.

This collaboration, the one Starke owns, has a hint of early Coldplay (or their musical ancestors Seal and Clapton) to it, but there’s also this 90’s Soundgardeny, alternative sensibility mixed in there, and a touch of old world soft-rock. It’s the kind of song that would be re-appropriated as a NZ Post or Kiwibank advertisement as it aged in the pre-streaming, pre-millennium world. Back when music still had substance, and lyrics meaning.

The voice and lyrics are like a Werther’s Original; distinctive, sweet and buttery, but there is a hard bite there too. He’s got some strong lungs, lending to powerful vocal belts, and sustained highs. The lyrics are reflective and clever. “Hope is a poison I hope you’ll take today.”

I can’t find anything to critique here. An instant classic. 5 of 5 stars.