The Flaming Stars: Named And Shamed

As a student of cool, Max Décharné knows its nuances well: He's written books on hipster slang and movie criminals, and has another in the works about the stretch of London real estate that gave style to some of Britain's biggest bands. As a musician, Décharné first oozed laid-back cool while drumming for the sadly underrated Gallon Drunk, but he took center stage in the mid-'90s with his own band, The Flaming Stars. A series of striking, stylized singles and a moody, gripping debut album (Songs From The Bar Room Floor) connected the dots between the Vox organ veneration of the '60s and the modern noirs of Tindersticks and Nick Cave, creating a darkened stage for a flurry of soulful sounds that might be called garage if their creases weren't so sharp.

Though The Flaming Stars was well-received in England—the late John Peel invited the band in for six separate Peel Sessions—its albums didn't even see proper U.S. release until Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label took notice a few years ago. While album number six, Named And Shamed, may thus lack a little context in America, it shouldn't matter: Each successive release mines the same dark alleys for inspiration, finding stories in shadowy bars and lives lived well after dusk.

Recorded (like all Flaming Stars albums) at London's analog-intensive Toe Rag Studios—home most famously to The White Stripes' Elephant—Named And Shamed sounds spectacularly natural, capturing the band's nighttime almost-ballads and organ-led chargers without fussy or glossy production. Most songs check in and out before wearing out their welcome, too: The album-opening "She's Gone" captures Décharné's low-and-smooth vision in well under three minutes, while the menacing "If You Give 'Em A Chance" barely sticks around for two. With the brakes applied, the slink shines even brighter: "The Marabou Shuffle" incorporates finger-snaps and spoken-word bits without blinking. In lesser hands, the result might be retro-cheesy, but after making cool for this long, The Flaming Stars can't help but sound any other way.