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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Starflyer 59

[#] Lust for Gold [Instrumentals] (2024)

Reviewed October 20, 2025

Starflyer minus Starflyer.

Jason Martin is on record talking about how vocals in Starflyer 59 were always more a necessity than anything he actively desired doing (see also, the long instrumental breaks at the end of many early Starflyer songs). Certain copies of the CD longbox edition of Lust for Gold came with an extra disc of its instrumentals, and an entire album of them, even if they weren't initially intended as such, gives you a real good look into how he builds up a song without singing to distract you. (Nothing against his voice, of course, just that human voices tend to take up your focus naturally.) These obviously are not the intended way to listen to the album, but as far as their catalog goes, Lust for Gold was certainly a good candidate for the vibe music treatment.

If nothing else, these instrumental mixes are good for getting you to notice the more buried details in the songs, like the Mexican-y castanets in "My Lungs"' chorus or the high melodic leads in verses of "909". Jason tends to play guitar to the vocal line about halfway between doubling and countermelody, affirming the catchy bits while creating audible interest, and helping these instrumentals not feel empty without their vocals. It also helps that Lust for Gold is just a richly-produced indie rock record, the clean guitars not overly trebly, the distorted ones roaring without being muddy, and the leads having that eerie, surfy tone that Starflyer has always been partial to. It's a solid extra to diehard fans who can find it.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"909", "My Lungs", "YZ80"	"Lust for Gold"	"No Sweat"

NOFI | LOFI | HIFI