Back in 1990, I was fresh out of college and working as a personal assistant to Susanna Hoffs and some others when I saw a band called Far Cry and offered to help them in whatever way a 20-year-old could. Their initial sound was folk-rock which evolved into alt-rock after they signed to Epic Records, became Sun 60, and released three pretty cool records (two of which are in Record Bin rotation). Then they broke up.
The lead singer, Joan Jones, went on to pursue a solo career, starting in 1998 with Starlite Criminal. Thought it's one of my most beloved records, I honestly don't know how to describe it because it's a little bit of everything all blended up like only Joan can. Lyrically, her writing has always reminded me of Neil Finn's... sort of serpentine and abstract. Not completely un-relatable, though not always grockable, either.
AllMusic.com writes of the set, “Starlite Criminal is a fully developed work that isn't short on insightful lyrics or arresting melodies, often delivered in a sultry fashion. It is a wonderful addition to an already impressive body of work.” In her AllMusic bio, which I apparently wrote 25 or so years ago, I called it “a wonderfully eclectic bunch of songs full of singable melodies and playfully twisted but ever so thoughtful lyrics.” And I don't now disagree with my younger self.
Last summer, as I was building the Record Bin library, I listened to this thing for the first time in a few years and fell in love with it all over again, as I think you might now.
Hear the whole episode February 18 at 6 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm PT.
