Silence Is Easy
2003 studio album by Starsailor
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Silence Is Easy is the second studio album by English indie rock group Starsailor, released in September 2003 on EMI Records. The album cover is loosely based on Echo & the Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here. The song "Some of Us" was featured in an episode of Bones titled "A Boy in a Bush"[12] and in the closing credits of the Belgian film The Memory of a Killer (a.k.a. The Alzheimer Case). The album contains some of the last productions by Phil Spector before his murder conviction and imprisonment in 2009, and before his death in 2021 ("Silence Is Easy" and "White Dove"). The album sold 54,296 copies in its opening week of release, charting at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. It was certified gold in the UK in 2003.[13]
| Silence Is Easy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 15 September 2003 | |||
| Genres | Post-Britpop, baroque pop | |||
| Length | 39:40 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Starsailor chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Silence Is Easy | ||||
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| Aggregate scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 53/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Drowned in Sound | 3/10[3] |
| E! | A−[4] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[5] |
| The Guardian | [6] |
| Pitchfork | 4.9/10[7] |
| Q | [8] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
| Slant Magazine | [10] |
| Uncut | 4/10[11] |
Critical reception
Silence Is Easy was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 53 based on 16 reviews.[1]
In a review for AllMusic, critic reviewer Matt Collar wrote: "Mixing alternative rock aesthetics with a melodic pop sensibility, Silence Is Easy finds the band in pretty much the same place as before with slightly better songwriting, a more mature vocal performance by Walsh, and tastefully grandiose production. The 11 tracks here, including the two Spector-produced numbers, are heartfelt, melodic rockers with some string backgrounds that fit well into the overall aesthetic of cinematic pop romanticism."[2] At Drowned in Sound, Gareth Dobson gave an unfavourable three out of ten score to the release, calling it a "perfected brand of middle-class miserablism".[3] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian called the album "attractive listening, and it's hard not to be moved by its tenderness."[6]
Writing for Pitchfork, John O'Connor wrote: "Starsailor revels in all of these romantic pretensions on Silence Is Easy, their melodramatic, overproduced, but not altogether unpleasant sophomore release. Defiantly sappy, Silence Is Easy survives mostly on Walsh's oddly graceful singing. Unfortunately, the music on the whole is prosaic, even boring at times."[7]
Playlouder ranked it at number eight on their list of the 20 worst albums of the year.[14]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Music Was Saved" | 3:00 |
| 2. | "Fidelity" | 2:22 |
| 3. | "Some of Us" | 3:37 |
| 4. | "Silence Is Easy" | 3:40 |
| 5. | "Telling Them" | 4:51 |
| 6. | "Shark Food" | 3:35 |
| 7. | "Bring My Love" | 2:20 |
| 8. | "White Dove" | 3:52 |
| 9. | "Four to the Floor" | 3:50 |
| 10. | "Born Again" | 6:03 |
| 11. | "Restless Heart" | 2:01 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Could You Be Mine?" | 3:33 |
| 13. | "At the End of a Show" | 4:12 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Four to the Floor" (Thin White Duke Remix) | 8:11 |
| 2. | "Four to the Floor" (Soulsavers Mix) | 5:12 |
| 3. | "Poor Misguided Fool" (Soulsavers Remix) | 4:39 |
| 4. | "Good Souls" (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix) | 5:50 |
| 5. | "Good Souls" (Echoboy Remix) | 5:17 |
| 6. | "Good Souls" (Soulsavers Remix) | 5:37 |
Personnel
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Production
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Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[13] | Gold | 100,000^ |
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^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||