The band Starling is a surprisingly decent new Canadian offering. With the release of their first album _Sustainer_, the band is hoping to sustain itself in the alt-pop music scene. Formed in 1997 with front man Ian LeFeuvre and Pete Von Althen, Starling doesn't bring anything revolutionary to the music scene, but it does offer a good collection of catchy songs. The album's lyrical content includes traditional, and perhaps clichd, male-centered pop lamentations that would make Petrarch proud. It is Petrarchan pop performed pleasantly, however, as the stories of unattainable girls bumming men out are told with a nicely blended sound.

Starling's potpourri of accomplished pop styles is evident from the first track, "Don't Deflate," which is reminiscent of Fountains of Wayne. "Earnest," the next track, has catchy Pavement-esque falsetto interjections accompanied by acoustic rhythms and clapping sounds that would make any late-'80s rock band proud, and still manages to bust out the electric guitars for the chorus. Going from Pavement to Extreme to Soundgarden in one song turns out, surprisingly, to be a nice stylistic mesh. The majority of the other songs are more electronically infused, making the band sound a lot like Tripping Daisy. Although it doesn't have any defining style, _Sustainer_ is a good album and the songs seem to have a relatively lasting appeal as far as pop is concerned. Who's to say what I'll think next week however?

B

- Keith Hahn