I hardly thought to ever write these words, but here they are. Starsailor are terribly loud. Yes, that Starsailor. Such sweet boys, you'd think. Well, that was back in the day, and In The Crossfire is here and now.

New album On The Outside's lead single discovers some new fangled way of cramming more decibels into a CD than should be possible with melodic, polished pop-rock. James Walsh is not and never has been Alec Empire, after all.

That's what happens if you start a song with a crescendo of noise, y'see. And yet all the crashing cymbals, raucous piano, squealing guitars, Hammond squibbles and Walsh's assured bellowing can hardly distract from the rock-solid songwriting on offer here. This is one damned fine single, and I can't wait to hear the album. But it's making my hearing aid squeal and my plastic knees tremble. Things were never this loud back in my day. Starsailor used to be such gentle boys. And there was a field just here...