Light Up Your Ears

 By Henry Lipput

With his talent for tunes and a voice like a choirboy, Peter Hall’s Light The Stars (Bandcamp) is the most gorgeous pop album you’ll hear this year. If Hall wanted to make a “full-on, full-length, melodic electric blanket” (his words) of a collection of songs he has certainly done it in spades with this release.

The new album is a follow-up to last year’s wonderful There’s Something Wrong With Everyone EP (CD: The Beautiful Music/Digital: Bandcamp) and the new album is, in both songwriting and production, a continuation and a step ahead in his musical progression. And except for drums on two songs, Hall plays instruments on every song.

The first indication of how marvelous Light The Stars would be was the release of the first single “Two Twenty Two” in July.  The Beatles aren’t name-checked in the song but it’s clear from the lyrics the song is about falling in love with a song and sharing that feeling with a loved one: “Just turn it over when it fades/Like we used to do/P.S. I love you.”

The next single was the equally lovely “The Best Idea” about a bump in a relationship” On Bandcamp, the single also includes “How Could You?” a non-album track which is reason enough to have two copies of  the song. A father and son conversation concludes with the father, after letting the son know everything he’s done to raise him right, telling him “you’re just like me;” that's not how it was supposed to turn out.

Every song on Light The Stars is a treasure. Some that have stuck with me are the jingle-jangle of the opener “Save Yourself,"  the title song has a bass-driven vibe and guitar solo not unlike mid-period Squeeze as well as a big, bold ending, and the dazzling, acoustic closer “The Last Day” is a twin to “She Fell From The Sky” on last year’s EP. 

But nothing quite prepares you for the glorious sound of “Firefly.” With it’s soaring backing and vocals, it’s the best song on what is clearly one of the best albums of the year.