'Space Trip For The Masses' is inspired by the recent hype around space tourism projects and it deals with the theme of inner search for happiness, through the story of an amateur astronaut, who sets off towards the sun without returning home. The songs revolve around spiralling drones, evolving from electronic patterns, humming of sitars, noises from the immediate surroundings like the buzzing of a fridge, and guitar layers with unusual tunings. It is an inverse and deconstructional composition process, where drones become the canvas as the band discover the harmonies from within noises, until the songs take on a life of their own. Drumming, bass and vocals always come last. Modern Stars’ vocalists adopt a rather distant approach, aided by similarly obscuring production and perfectly tailored to the more psychedelically repetitions, yet overly greyscale when focusing on effective choruses.
The opening track Starlight is a dissonant dirge that accompanies the beginning of the journey that a modern Icarus decides to undertake to get to know himself. The following syncopated and acidic Monkey Blues portrays a moment in which the protagonist no longer understands whether what surrounds him is reality or the fruit of his mind. In the obsessive march of No Fuss, he proceeds towards the achievement of his goal. However, something goes wrong, and the atmosphere becomes apocalyptic with My Messiah Left Me Behind. Side B side opens the symphonic and distorted sounds of Everyday, a lullaby of hope that turns into a pressing mantra. It continues with the delicate Drowning, in which the traveller faces the fate that sees him sink without returning home. The album ends with Ninna Nanna, a psychedelic lullaby composed on a traditional children's song.
