CD Review: Starlight Girls - Self-titled

Note: This review originally appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.

Listening to the self-titled debut from Starlight Girls, it’s easy to imagine these four musicians only come out after the sun has gone down. Singer-keyboards player and chief songwriter Christina B’s playful vocals are equal parts jazz and new wave while her farsifa organ playing adds a dark but consistently fun element. The five song EP, which is available as a digital download as well as on vinyl, conjures images of carnivals, espionage, go-go dancing, and Saturday morning cartoon shows.

“Flutterby,” with its bump and grind percussion and alluring melody, could have easily sprung from the musical, Cabaret. The farsifa is most prominently featured on the energetic and very 1960’s-oriented “Gossip,” while Starlight Girls aim for the club scene with the pulsating techno beats of “Wasteland.” With “The Hunch” mixing a guitar-driven arrangement with Christina B’s fluid piano playing, it seems Starlight Girls just might have created a genre unto themselves.