It’s been a while since I’ve heard a new Starflyer 59 release described first in terms of speed, and that alone made Disappointed E.P. interesting to me. Jason Martin’s catalog has plenty of records I like, but even people who have stuck with him through the later run have had to admit that the slower drift can flatten out. So when the talk around 2026’s Disappointed E.P. centered on “I’m Disappointed” moving with early punk force and a clear Ramones influence, that felt less like hype than a useful correction. This EP matters because it makes pace the point. Not every track here is racing, and that restraint actually helps the case. Starflyer 59 doesn’t need a total rewrite to sound awake again. It just needs a push.
The title track says what this EP is about
“I’m Disappointed” is where the argument starts, and it’s still the strongest reason to pay attention. At 138 seconds, it doesn’t waste any time pretending to be bigger than it is. The song gets to its hook quickly, and by around the 0:20 mark the whole thing is already locked into that clipped, forward drive that people keep comparing to early punk. The Ramones nod makes sense, not because Starflyer 59 suddenly turns into a revival act, but because the rhythm is blunt and efficient in a way Jason Martin rarely foregrounds anymore. There’s no long runway. The guitar attack is tighter, the vocal phrasing is pushed harder, and the arrangement feels built to keep moving rather than hang in place. Released through Velvet Blue Music, the EP arrives with one very clear idea: if recent Starflyer 59 has sometimes felt sluggish, this opener is the rebuttal.
What speed changes in Jason Martin’s writing
The real value of this EP is not simply that it goes faster. It’s that the faster tempo changes the pressure on Martin’s writing. According to the band discography listings, Starflyer 59 has stayed busy in recent years, with Vanity in 2021, Lust For Gold in 2024, and Dejame Dormir in 2025 before this 2026 release. Activity has never been the problem. The issue, at least to my ear, has been that some of the later material could settle into a crawl before the songs had really earned it. “I’m Disappointed” fixes that by refusing to coast. Even the vocal lines feel more decisive because there’s less room to linger. Jason Martin, who is credited in one artist database with vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and synth as part of the broader Starflyer 59 picture, has always been able to stack mood and melody. Here, the more interesting move is subtraction. The song works because it trims the fat and lets momentum do some of the writing.
Disappointment works better as a title than a concept
I also like that Disappointed E.P. doesn’t need a big theory behind it. The title invites a raised eyebrow, especially if you’ve seen commentary taking shots at the band’s post-Dial M years or calling out the snail’s-pace side of the catalog. But the joke lands because the music answers the title with motion instead of self-pity. That’s enough. I don’t think this EP needs to be read as a grand statement about career fatigue or fan expectation. It works better as a small, pointed release that knows exactly where the skepticism is coming from. Even the title single being issued ahead of the full EP helps that reading: the message was basically, here’s the jolt first. The result is leaner than the shoegaze and dreampop tags often attached to Starflyer 59 would suggest, but not disconnected from them. It’s still Martin. He’s just choosing force over fog this time.
A useful surprise: the band sounds more alert than radical
Still recognizable as Starflyer 59
That last part matters, because Disappointed E.P. is not a case of Starflyer 59 abandoning its identity to chase a punk record. “I Wanna Disappear,” at 128 seconds, keeps the EP in compact form, but it doesn’t hit with the same straight-ahead charge as “I’m Disappointed.” Instead, it feels like the bridge between the old and the new approach: quick, concise, but still carrying the slightly blurred melodic pull that links the band to shoegaze and dreampop shorthand. Then “Trash,” which stretches to 200 seconds, gives the release a little more room to breathe. That extra minute matters. You can hear the EP relax without collapsing back into the slower habits it’s pushing against. This is why I wouldn’t overclaim a full stylistic reboot. The title track is the headline, but the other two songs show Starflyer 59 testing how much edge it can add while remaining legible as itself.
Verdict: a jolt, not a total reset
For me, that’s the right scale for this release. Disappointed E.P. is not trying to settle every question about late-period Starflyer 59, and it doesn’t need to. What it does is simpler and probably more useful: it proves the band can still make a short release feel urgent. “I’m Disappointed” is the obvious standout, and rightly so, but the EP as a whole benefits from not pretending every song has the same job. One track delivers the sharp shock, one keeps the compact momentum going, and one lets the band stretch just enough to show this isn’t a novelty sprint. On Velvet Blue Music, in 2026, this lands as a welcome sign of creative restlessness from a band that could easily have settled for one more slow fade. I’d call it a solid 7/10, and if you’ve cooled on Starflyer 59 a bit, this is the kind of release that might bring you back around.
Give it a listen, and if the title track hits you the way it hit me, pick up a copy.
Tracklist
- I'm Disappointed 2:18
- I Wanna Disappear 2:08
- Trash 3:20
