Exploding with emotion, Fright Years’ new single “Stars” not only sends us off into space, hoping to grab onto every single star we can, but also grounds us in the reality that sometimes things don’t go as planned. The song guides us through navigating these troubles as we learn about ourselves along the way.
For frontwoman Jules Kelly, the song is about finding peace within her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis. She did not try to write the song directly about the struggle of accepting such a loss of power, but finding freedom and letting go of what cannot be controlled: “So I let go, and my legs start running / To see the world in the way you could / Cause now I know that it will never be enough.”
The song serves as a reflection upon a life that seems unfair because of lacking answers in a time of uncertainty, just as the band Alvvays has mastered on well-known tracks like “Easy On Your Own.” Other influences include Wolf Alice and The Cranberries. The Edinburgh-based band, consisting of Kelly, Harrison MacLeod-Bonnar, Christopher Jamieson, and Struan Blacklock, has paired emphatic vocals with emotionally charged lyrics, delivering a crashing, mosaic soundscape.
When you get to sit down and listen, Kelly sweeps you off of your feet, throwing you miles high as you explore the intensity of the pulse-pounding track that makes you want to run a marathon: “I need stars now / I need stars out to keep me going.”
Kelly asked her dad about his feelings towards the diagnosis, and she elaborates for us:
“I asked my dad why he wasn’t angrier, I just thought he was the unluckiest person in the world. But he said he still considered himself a very lucky person. In fact, he couldn’t believe just how lucky he had been to have had such an amazing life and to have been so happy. I just found it unbelievable that he could have that perspective.”
