The Foreign Films - Starlight Serenade (2021)

“Starlight Serenade,” by The Foreign Films, review by Bob Rich (Santa Monica Star, California USA July 2021)

Bill Majoros, aka The Foreign Films, understands that, in trying times, wonder and splendor are highly valuable commodities. Here in the second year of an international pandemic, Majoros has released his seventh album, “Starlight Serenade.” His songcraft, moonstruck enthusiasm, and gritty realism, are as reliable as ever.

The album kicks off with the description of a “desolate city,” summing up the current state of the world, with our health crises and upheaval, then Majoros immediately sighs, “Oh, my dear, you look so pretty tonight.” Finding magnificence during devastation has been a poignant theme in Majoros’s work for years. This is the second album he has released during the pandemic. We continue to find Majoros rapt in awe, while remaining firmly grounded in the troubling realities of our universal struggles.

The second track, “Echoes Of The Heart,” urges a specific woman, Marianne, to forget about her sorrow, while the soaring arrangement makes it easy to do so. Deprivation helps us appreciate nourishment or beauty when we find it, which he describes vividly in the phrase a “skylark in the darkness” – as if a gorgeous bird is somehow alive and well in the deep shadows of turmoil. Majoros even mentions an “endless summer” in the song, perhaps a nod to the bittersweet grandeur of The Beach Boys, where Brian Wilson so often found a little hope and wonder in seaside tales touched by melancholy.

For this reviewer, the crowning achievement of the album arrives with the third track, “Many Moons Ago (Starlight Serenade).” The song opens with a luminous, celestial beginning, as a keyboard sounds off with ten seconds of sonic bliss. This cosmic vibe is felt again at 51 seconds with a harp-like rush of sound, then also at 1:57 where we again hear the ephemeral harp. He describes a “world of wonder” in the lyrics, and that is exactly what he creates with this song, a marvelous world of sound to explore, like Fellini’s “8 ½” transformed into a dazzling pop song.

The song “Rainbows” blends acoustic strumming with evocative piano, leading up to the technicolor carnival of “All the Love You Give,” where keyboards call out like clarion trumpets. The song includes the lyric, “Wish your cares away… took you to the picture show,” which encapsulates what Majoros does for the listener during the album. He gives us a cinematic experience, with imagery that is vibrant and transporting, taking us to exotic locations like the sea shore or Spanish gardens, often under the stars or moon. Importantly though, the record does not feel like purely escapist entertainment. Rather, I sense he is urging us to find happiness and strength in our actual lives. “All the Love You Give” encourages us to “live the life that you want to live,” a bold sentiment during a global pandemic – but the consoling acoustic guitar at the song’s conclusion is so upbeat, it seems possible somehow.

Despite the lofty ambitions in his lyrical concerns, Majoros never loses sight of how we’re all just human. The tune “A Photograph Of You” features his admission, “I have won and I have failed.” This refreshing confession of imperfection can empower us to take our own risks, knowing that mistakes and frustrations are a part of life. Perhaps disappointments don’t have to be seen as failures after all, but rather as necessary steps of growth. We never will taste the sweet fruit of victory unless we keep trying, as the next song, “The Mystery Of Love,” reminds us. The song feels like someone basking in happy romantic memories. Of course, these memories will never take place unless both parties bravely try to see what might be possible. “The Mystery Of Love” features another of Majoros’s stunningly inventive uses of the keyboard on the album, this time recalling the kaleidoscopic majesty of "Any Colour You Like" from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”

“Johnny Don't Be A Fool” recalls The Beatles’ “She Loves You” and “Hey Jude,” building off the emotional victory of “The Mystery Of Love” with even more encouragement to give romance a shot. “Sweet Madeline” continues the album’s theme of mystery to poignant effect. Then, finally we arrive at “Angel In Disguise,” the closing tune. Here, we savor an R&B beat reminiscent of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” portraying a female love interest so formidable that she can “kill the pain” you’re feeling with her “passion’s blinding light.” This lady’s “eyes glitter and glow” like some modern-day Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, making you feel like you can “leave this earthly world,” but the beautiful thing is, she is a real-life human person. Majoros seeks out the otherworldly in our sad, hurting, risky, actual world, capturing the spirit of Magic Realism, the creative movement which tries to find wonder in the everyday.

Congrats to The Foreign Films for making yet another deeply worthwhile song cycle that discovers healing poetry along the broken, exciting roads of life on earth. This is one serenade I strongly suggest you stick around for.

Heartfelt thanks to Bob Rich for the absolutely wonderful review!!✌️❤️🎸