Steve Horne – Staring at the Sun
“Staring at the Sun”, the 8th album by English musician Steve Horne is a musical journey, carved out in isolation in rural Devon. This collection of ten tracks extends Horne’s growth as a songwriter and outlines his skill as a producer, making sure the experience is sonically rich and lyrically profound.
The album starts with the rousing anthem “Higher Power,” which sets an optimistic tone with its soaring chorus of “Higher power / Higher than you can reach.” This sense of striving for something beyond our grasp carries throughout the album, imbuing it with a sense of aspiration that follows through to tracks such as “The Great Escape.” This sun-drenched ode to escapism is the universal desire for freedom and new starts, with lines like “She wants to hit the bottle / She wants a holiday” resonating with everyone who dreamed of breaking free from their routine.
As the album unfolds, Horne becomes even more introspective. “The Mirror Pool” is one hauntingly beautiful ode to introspection; its sparse instrumentation allows lyrics such as “Only in the end / Do you understand” to be at the forefront of this track. The mood of thoughtfulness continues with “Frozen,” on which Horne’s ethereal production serves as a perfect complement to the lyrics “We are in this moment, frozen,” again showing his ability to set a lyrical concept to music.
One of the most interesting moments on this album is “You and I,” which features Grammy-winning saxophonist Fabian. The song delves into the unnerving idea of a potential human romantic AI relationship; lines such as, “You say that you want to be / Right here in front of me,” take on a new almost macabre meaning. Fabian adds soul and heart with his sax lines to the digital narrative, thereby creating an interesting balance.
The way Horne allows his personal experiences to be interwoven with more inclusive, deeper themes in “Miracle” and the title track “Staring at the Sun” feels incredibly reminiscent of brilliant, full-bodied tips: the former about stars aligning in one glorious moment and the latter telling us, “We’re all here beneath the big wide blue,” attempting to bring our common humanness into focus. These, along with other songs on the album, place us in the context of the universe and encourage listeners to reflect on their existence.
The final track “Shine On” is an apt closer, as it begs the listener to ‘Shine on in the night.’ That is an uplifting conclusion to a record that balances the deeply personal and utterly universal with ease. Throughout, Horne’s crisp, clean production gives every instrument room to breathe without ever sacrificing the emotional core of these songs.
“Staring at the Sun” is one of those cohesive, considered albums that bears repeated listens. Having taken contributions from the far-flung musicians, it is at once intimate and expansive, rather like the Devon countryside in which it was created. Steve Horne has created an album that is both deeply personal in its message and universally relatable in its exploration of the human condition – a testament to the fact that sometimes, the most profound connections result from the deepest states of isolation. From the introspective depths of “The Mirror Pool” to the cosmos-considerate “Staring at the Sun,” the album is a musical journey as it is engagingly intellectual. (7/10) (Steve Horne Music)
