THE HANGING STARS, JUST A DAY

“The Byrds ‘I Feel a Whole Lot Better/All I Really Want to Do’… A pinnacle of music; the chiming guitars, the divine melody, the celestial harmonies. Gets me every time. Every. God. Damn. Time. I mean, seriously. To put this on a big PA is pure magic. I’m not really much of a sonic snob, but I think this on a 7” hits every synapse in my brain in all the right ways.” — Richard Olson

For a decade now, London, UK band The Hanging Stars have been writing and playing music rooted in ’60s Brit-pop, folk rock, psychedelic folk, and West Coast country rock, all with a deep love of melody. Led by Richard Olson, the band makes no secret of their love for The Byrds, Big Star, and Teenage Fanclub.

On their sixth album, Just A Day, the band really focuses in on the early sound of The Byrds, with four-part harmonies, jangling twelve-string guitars, and hook-driven songs. The core of the album was recorded in a single week in the Scottish Highlands at Edwyn Collins’s Clashnarrow Studios, using his vintage gear, including the Gretsch Blackhawk guitar Collins played in his Orange Juice days, and the Barnes and Mullins fuzz box heard on the hit single “A Girl Like You.” Described as a mix between “Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory” and the BBC’s Repair Shop, Clashnarrow Studios is known for its warm, rootsy, analogue-forward sound, which can clearly be heard throughout the album.

I’ve enjoyed all of The Hanging Stars’ albums, particularly their 2024 release, On A Golden Shore, which leaned into a more early ’70s psychedelic folk rock sound. But I will say that I really like Just A Day. With its beautiful harmonies and melodic songs, it’s where everything they do works best.