Stars on ESP
| Stars on E.S.P. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Studio album by His Name Is Alive | ||||
| Released | June 24, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1992-1995 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length |
44:11 58:33 (1998 reissue) |
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| Label | 4AD | |||
| Producer | Warren Defever | |||
| His Name Is Alive chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Stars on E.S.P. | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.1/10 |
| Robert Christgau | A− |
| Spin | 7/10 |
Stars on E.S.P. is an album by His Name Is Alive, released by 4AD in 1996. Entertainment Weekly ranked it #25 on its Highest Rated Albums of 1996 List.
Stars on E.S.P. had the longest gestation period of any His Name Is Alive album, a project that band leader Warren Defever spent three years crafting before it saw release. In his notes written at the time of the album's release, he mentions that he began work on "I Can't Live in This World Anymore" in December 1992, right after the completion of Mouth by Mouth. The project took so long for a few reasons: HNIA's 1993 tour in support of Mouth by Mouth; the death of Defever's mother in 1994, which led his father to move to Florida, leaving the house to Defever and him living alone for the first time; and various other projects that were started but mostly left uncompleted. The album finally saw release in July 1996 on 4AD, both by their native UK branch and their USA wing, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Records at the time.
This was the first album to feature Lovetta Pippen, who became the band's primary vocalist in the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade). She sings as part of a gospel choir on the song "Last One."
While a deceptively simple and minimalist album at first glance, Stars on ESP is actually rich with detail. The overarching concept is that the album is a pseudo-compilation of singles on the ESP-Disk label founded in 1966. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, ESP was noted for its roster of psychedelic, folk and progressive bands. The label had its own identity, similar to the way 4AD would develop its own identity in the 1980s. On the album's sleeve, all the songs have the album's 4AD catalog number (CAD6010) with a number appended after it, as if each one was a single. (For example, opener "Dub Love Letter" is labeled CAD6010.01, etc.)
The album also seems to allude to the old days of pop music, that once a song became popular, several different artists recorded their own version of the song. Therefore, tracks 2, 10, and 15 are all different versions of the same song.
The other main theme is Defever's memories of AM radio and being a youth in the 1970s, and the songs both reflect the sound of the decade's AM radio fare and are filled with memories of Michigan winters, summers and locations. There are several musical interludes that give the impression of turning through a radio dial, including snippets of songs that later appear in full.
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