7/10

There’s something refreshingly unsanitised about 'Impossible', the new EP from The Unlimited Stars. It’s messy, magnetic, and entirely uninterested in being perfect. Instead, the band lean hard into the chaos of connection and pull out three tracks that feel like journal entries set to distortion. It’s a document of becoming, in real time.

The title-track Impossible kicks things off with a confident shrug and a crooked smile. It’s a song about that familiar push-pull of admiring someone, maybe even needing them for a moment, while knowing deep down they’re not meant to stay. Guitars wander and swell around the lyrics, and the live-tracked nature of the recording gives it a warmth that overproduced sessions often strip away.

'First Time' moves in a more primal direction, diving headfirst into the friction of lust and memory. There’s a looseness to the arrangement that mirrors the song’s subject of the hunger to rediscover physical connection without the baggage of familiarity. The vocals nod toward a Shirley Manson-style sneer in the final stretch, though the mix doesn’t quite let them rip the way they want to. Still, there’s an honesty in the tension that gives the song its bite.

Then there’s 'Exu', the wildcard centrepiece. Inspired by the Brazilian spirit of mischief and transformation, this track doesn’t care if you “get it” or not, it just charges forward. There’s a touch of chaos in the vocal mix, but that almost suits the subject. 'Exu' isn’t meant to be neat or predictable. He disrupts, and through that disruption, teaches.

Across all three songs, what stands out is how lived-in they are. They’re full of edges, late-night revisions, and moments of accidental magic. You can hear the band in conversation with each other, layering over rhythm guitar scaffolding with instinct instead of agenda. That kind of chemistry can’t be faked, and it shines through, imperfections and all.

Not every moment lands cleanly. Not every mix is perfect. But that’s not the point. 'Impossible' is about transition, instinct, and that very human blend of clarity and confusion. 'The Unlimited Stars' are chasing truth, and they’ve caught just enough of it here to make us eager for what’s next.