What do you think Starman Jr.'s power level is? Don't look up a player's guide, I want you to give your best, educated guess. Would you rate it high or moderate? Do you think he's a fair, early encounter, or should his fight be put off until you've maxed out some stats? I'm of course talking about the NOLA-based indie rocker and not the Earthbound adversary of the same name, but I can see how you might get too confused. Unlike his namesake sibling, running into Starman Jr. (the musician) is not inevitable (as it is [sort of] in the game... you know, Earthbound). He's been a prolific recording artist since at least 2015, but I only encountered him for the first time this morning while looking for something to put on while replying to emails (I guess you could call it a random encounter). I was initially intrigued by his 2022 LP Hardcore (a consequence of my long recovery from a prior era when I unironically referred to myself as a "punk kid"), but I ended up really falling for his most recent release Temple instead. Temple overall has a softer focus to its production than some of his other work, personifying a gentle balance of balmy restfulness and understated splendor, a contagious kategori of bare folk kindness and lopsided pop bliss that blisters achingly like a tar bubble crying for relief and release. Here SJr. plays a kind of fleecy, proto-catatonic country in the class of Coma Cinema, which if it gets you under its spell, will cause all your ideal aspirations to float through the exhaust vents of your ears and into the world like clouds of concrete, falling into place until they convene a chapel of faultless attainment where intentions become stirringly factual and real, and any tongue is intelligible as long as it is spoken with honesty and care. Mello liquid mushroom melodies cascade from cracks in chamber-conscious compositions like sunrays dancing through the gaps in a rainbow. Songs come together like a mirror shattering in reverse to capture the moment a stone was cast into it, permitting you a moment to contemplate the regret in your own eyes and grant yourself a premonition of pardon for future transgressions with a promise to do better next time around. As it turns out, Starman Jr.'s (emotional and aesthetical) power level is pretty high. Thankfully, he's not a boss encounter, more like a new addition to your party- one who can raise your HP with a simple strum of his guitar and chase off baddies with the disarming sincerity of his aura.
