“We are all made of stardust,” Carl Sagan used to say, and for the album “Stardust Through Decades”, perhaps this thought fits literally. Jaden Sade is an independent artist from Austria who is difficult to confuse with anyone else. Behind his shoulders are already four works-“Pressed Between Seasons”, “Tidal Wave”, “The Forgotten Chapters”, and “Endless Time”-and all of them were written, produced, and mixed by himself: one person, one voice, one optic. And now-“Stardust Through Decades”, an album that definitively secures his status as an author with a consistent, recognizable signature. If Jaden’s previous works were a chamber, introvert self-analysis, then “Stardust Through Decades” is no longer a room with a closed door, but a ballroom. The album breathes with decades of queer culture: in it, one can hear echoes of “Paris Is Burning” with its voguing drive and proud self-proclamation of identity, as well as the theatrical, deliberately excessive aesthetics of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. Jaden boldly quotes classics of a completely different kind as well-“The Little Mermaid” and “Alice in Wonderland”: stories about heroines leaving their familiar world for the sake of searching for their true essence, even at the cost of their own voice or sanity. In the tracklist are ten songs connected by one theme inspired by space, stars, and a sense of belonging.
The record opens with the intro “Stardust Through Decades”-a minimalist piano and a vocal reaching through years and parsecs, calling you to follow. The delivery is restrained, intimate, with a large amount of air. In “Shooting Star”, the author chooses a light retro sound, especially in the backing vocals. The song moves in a mode of fleetingness-like a flash of desire that is impossible to hold, but possible to manage to name. A falling star lives for a second, but in this second is all the beauty, and Jaden catches it. From fleetingness, the sound transitions to the pain of self-denial. In the song “Never Be You”, a conversation takes place with a person for whose sake one’s own traits were once erased. A personal, painful, but at the same time harmonious and cosmic melancholy is felt. In key moments of singing, close vocal harmonies are added: you listen-and it seems that several voices of the artist surround you at once.
“Down a Rabbit Hole” carries one away into a psychedelic, slightly hypnotic, and viscous sound. Reality begins to tremble slightly, as if in a dream, and familiar reference points lose their power. Here, the literary aesthetics of the album are especially noticeable: Jaden constructs scenes in which symbols work as characters. The rhythm becomes heavier, with a decelerated, swinging groove. Descending synthesizers and looped samples create a feeling of light dizziness and falling into that very rabbit hole. At the bottom of this hole, “Somebody New” is discovered-a track-rebirth. The vocals begin to sound more confident, sharper, as if the singer has finally found solid ground under his feet in a new, unfamiliar body of identity. The track is built on the contrast between a neat, pulsating bass and bright synthesizer chords. This is classic bedroom-R&B with a very soft drumbeat to which one involuntarily wants to nod their head.
The track “Let Me Out!” confidently enters the record. The rhythm becomes denser, the bass more insistent, as if the music is physically trying to open a door into space. The door swings open-and the listener is enveloped in the sunny atmosphere of “Hot And Bright”. A very light, relaxed, and thick delivery. The vocal floats across the mix. Warm, rich synthesizers, vintage chorus on guitars, and an unhurried, defocused lo-fi rhythm-everything sounds brighter and warmer than the artist’s usual night melancholy. But behind brightness, reflection always comes. “Everybody Knows” is a track about the publicity of feeling, when the personal ceases to be a secret. The delivery acquires a tired tinge. Conversational recitative in the verses is replaced by a melodic, catchy hook in the chorus. Backing vocals are panned across a wide panorama, creating an effect of infinity-of a galaxy or thoughts in one’s head.
Closer to the finale is “Tell Me What I Want”, a song-paradox: an attempt to delegate to another the right to decide what you actually want when your own voice has long been lost in a choir of outside expectations. The vocal is as close to the microphone as possible: all halftones, all details are audible. In the chorus, a layering into octaves is added, which creates the effect of a dialogue with oneself. “Seeing Stars” is a track that rolls the entire album into one whole. Jaden speaks the titles of all the songs on the album, reliving the whole journey anew-from a falling star to a ballroom, from a rabbit hole to the moment when, finally, you see stars again.
“Stardust Through Decades” is an album for those who love it when pop music sounds meaningful and thinks. In Jaden Sade’s music, an author’s hand and an ability to talk about delicate things without pretension are felt. In his fifth, anniversary album, the author managed to create a cohesive space where one can get a little lost, but also want to stay.
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