Pop rock bands across the pond have always had a pattern of mediocrity in the States after success in England. Starsailor is England's latest export whose hype preceded its debut album. After breaking out at Glastonbury's 2000 festival, along with Coldplay, Starsailor walked into the studio headstrong and the result is the unstable album Love is Here.

Taking its name from a rare Tim Buckley LP, Starsailor doesn't waste any time saluting their maker with the opening track, "Tie Up My Hands." Singer/guitarist James Walsh meddles through self-restraining lyrics while alternating back and forth between soft acoustics and driving grunge-like riffs. What starts as a cold song ends with a fever. An instrumental whirlwind caps off the track with Walsh moaning on top of Barry Westhead's subtle, but stirring keyboarding.

Many songs on the album follow the same soft-turned-loud formula: acoustics to electric guitars, pianos to keyboards to organs, whispers to screaming sopranos. The elegance of Walsh's voice is as booming as Jeff Buckley's, but not as resilient.

In a few songs, Starsailor does little to distinguish the line separating inspiration and originality. "Poor Misguided Fool" steals the guitars from Blur's "Coffee & TV" while the solo on "Way to Fall" parallels that of Coldplay's "Spies." But in other ways, Starsailor finds their own niche within their Brit-pop-rock peers like Idlewild, Travis and the Manic Street Preachers, the latter with whom they've toured.

The album's closer, "Coming Down," gracefully exhibits a brutal honesty to a friend lost in drugs and alcohol overtop one piercing unplugged guitar. When you think the song is about to take off, it ends — and along with it the album. Uplifting organs are pure icing on the ascension of their single, "Good Souls," a prayer thanking Jesus Christ for the good people of the world. Overall, their intricate, aural acoustics are easily enjoyed on disk but would amplify on stage.

The album title suggests an arrival of love, but after a few listens, you'll find failure and lost hope brought themselves along for the ride too. An example is the track "She Just Wept." After building a triumphant melodic crescendos in "Way to Fall" and "Fever," Walsh sinks deeper into melancholy as he sings, "She just wept/ Like I could not ignore/ How can I act/ When my heart's on the floor?/ She just wept/ 'Til her eyes became sore/ I knew who she was/ But I don't anymore." Such Valium laden lyrics suggest Walsh penned songs with one hand and held a gun to his head with the other.

I recommend this album to anyone attuned to England exports, as well as American heroes Neil Young and Jeff Buckley. But for recent victims of fallen relationships, put the album back on the shelf — clinging to the album's sorrow can be a catalyst for apathy.

With a debut album this multi-faceted, Starsailor has many directions to go for its next endeavor. Sophomore albums often unfairly prove a band's worth, but if Starsailor can stray from the sound of their idols and peers, they'll break out in the States as big as they have across the pond.