Harvest Runes Music – 7.4
James Anthony Wolff’s Eyes Like Stars feels like a slow-release memory. It’s his first full-length album, but the music has a lived-in quality, built from songs spanning over a decade and finalized in 2023. Rather than chasing a modern sound, Wolff leans into a mix of live band energy and poetic introspection that lands somewhere between art rock, bedroom pop, and mid-2000s indie.
His training at Peabody Conservatory adds structural depth, but he never loses the thread of feeling. Wolff seems less interested in perfecting his image and more focused on getting the emotional tone exactly right — even if that means letting things fray at the edges.
“Setting Sun” is a highlight: a deeply sincere track about chasing something that might never slow down enough to hold. “Ghosts” drifts into eerie, fragmented territory, building its narrative out of whispered paranoia and clanging memories. “In the End” closes the record with quiet resolve, holding space for the possibility of self-destruction and clarity in the same breath.
Some tracks could have benefited from tighter editing, and a few themes repeat, but the cumulative effect of the album is undeniable. Eyes Like Stars doesn’t demand attention — it keeps unfolding long after the first listen, revealing layers of doubt, hope, and longing that refuse to be easily boxed in.
