His Name is Alive, Stars on E.S.P. (CD)

Seemingly every His Name is Alive album is a bit impenetrable and hard to describe, and 1996's Stars on E.S.P. is certainly no exception. It contains the same song a few times, a weird Beach Boys homage, and a flagrant Phil Spector girl group lift (Warn does not like being reminded of "Bad Luck Girl"'s debt). Atmospheric textures and radical arrangement shifts rest inside of pop songs that are fairly conventionally structured, with memorable vocal melodies in the foreground. "This World is Not My Home" is one of Warn's strongest songs. The packaging, while typical of Vaughan Oliver's work at the time, looks great and really fits the music, but the mastering job is a bit murky and dated.