Caleb L’Etoile – Starling (2025)
Existing within the realm of contrasts, singer-songwriter Caleb L’Etoile shares songs that are cinematic but intimate, tender but abrasive, strange but soothing, off-kilter but comfortable – all a lingering insight into vulnerability, quirkiness, and a bit of a dark allure that is L’Etoile’s sound. Hailing from the USA, Virginia to be exact, this multi-instrumentalist blurs the lines between hard-hitting punk, charming indie-pop, obscure dark-pop, and a couple more genres along the way. This is our introduction to L’Etoile, so I have no idea what to expect; given his Spotify description of “…songs like ghost stories – short, vivid and impossible to forget…”, I figure something to hit me between the eyes.
Taken from his new full-length album, PS, ‘Starling’ is considered the nucleus of the ten-track album. Self-penned, recorded and produced in about one month, L’Etoile describes PS as “…an album of perfectly imperfect songs that’s the loudest and spookiest thing I’ve ever made… a tone for the horror anthology, with each song written to be a tiny horror movie, telling a different story in the broken and blurry world I’ve created.” With ‘Starling’, L’Etoile offers a tense, dramatic, “dark, devil-tinged song where menace and humanity blur together…”
I’ll admit, I’m not one for horror or Halloween, but there is something alluring to PS. Opening with a horror-flick scream in ‘Darling, Pt. 2’, you’re either immediately taken aback and nervous to continue or intrigued to discover why the hell the scream and take a look into this world. ‘Starling’ is somewhat less intense than the chaotic journey of ‘Darling, Pt. 2’, but within its wash of gothic-rock meets post-punk meets an alternative, experimental brush of art-rock, there is a sense of insistent intimacy and fear.
At first listen, the vocals reminded me of Nick Cave’s murder ballads with his shivering run of gothic-rock; however, as ‘Starling’ continued, you notice the frenzy missing from the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds songs. As creepy as ‘’Henry Lee’ and ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ might be, Caleb E’toile ups the ante, capturing the creepiness and slamming a blood-pumping, pulsating swoop of punk and panic exacerbated by the urgency in his voice and the rollercoaster rush of distorted guitar and drums. Madness… utter tempestuous madness locked in a four-minute mash of sound, ‘Starling’ is a hurried run tapping into the darkness of our souls with devilish appeal.
Find out more about Caleb L’Etoile on his Instagram, TikTok, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, YouTube and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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