Stars In Our Bedroom After the War Rating: 7.5 Label: Arts & Crafts For fans of: Broken Social Scene, Apostle of Hustle, Metric

 

In retrospect, what ruined Stars for me originally was the episode of Degrassi that featured “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” off of Set Yourself on Fire. The seniors graduated, while a few had to stay back because they were either too crippled to receive sufficient credit, or because they were the stereotypical underachiever. Meanwhile, born-again Spinner became a sinful bastard (he should be re-nicknamed Sinner, no?), de-flowered himself for the second or third time, and cheated on Darcy. Oh, and Paige did not cut it as a lesbian, but that was a given. While I have no guilt enjoying this show, its soundtrack is, to say the least, sub-par; it’s mainly a gaggle of no-name Canadian bands whose only gig is probably recording these aforementioned sub-par tunes, at least that’s what we’re all assuming. But Stars? Oh my, I’ve heard of them. And a song of theirs is on Degrassi? Have they no dignity? You’ve gotta be shitting me!

 

But enough about Degrassi.

 

Stars has a new album under their wing for an Arts&Crafts September release, In Our Bedroom After the War. The first preposition in the album title “In Our Bedroom” is an almost-perfect representation of the record’s entirety. A dimly-lit bedroom seems like an ideal location to tap into it, whilst talking or lying around with a hypothetical significant other (well, for me at least…). The instrumentation was ever-so sensitively yet extensively thought-out, while the duets and switching-off between Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell are done in a clever yet elegant, charming manner. Many male-female pop/rock duets are too borderline-Disney (Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson) or theatrical (Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley), but neither Millan nor Campbell’s vocals are dominating one another’s; its neutrality ties in with the dreamy atmosphere.

 

Even from the first track, cleverly-titled “The Beginning After the End,” its hazy, quasi-shoegaze electronics draws you in with its catchy melodies, which transitions into “The Night Starts Here,” a rattling track chock-full of celestial delight. The keyboard literally scintillates in and out like twinkling stars, while the layering of strings, percussion, and vocals gently mist over to compose a musical nebula, much like “My Favourite Book” as well, only the latter has much more romantic overtones, while the former leans more towards ambiguous. “Personal” is the most direct above all, which entails a story of a date gone wrong. “Caroline” responds to a man’s ad, suggesting she may have some emotional baggage and drab looks. As a result, he either doesn’t show up, or he leaves abruptly. It’s probably Stars’ way of saying, “Don’t meet people from the Internet, because they’ll only fuck you over.” Luckily, I had learned my lesson months ago. Uhhh… hi, Matt*.

 

“Barricade,” figuratively-speaking, is like accidentally grabbing the stale bag of potato chips (or pretzels, whichever you prefer). You want to enjoy it, you really do, but you resort to disposing the bag. Campbell’s Morrissey-channeled crooning is a tad hackneyed, even in “Take Me to the Riot,” which sounds exactly like a Smiths song. Come to think of it, all of the tracks in which Campbell has the lead (the two mentioned, “Ghost of Genova Heights,” “Life 2: The Unhappy Ending” and the title track) ruffle my feathers to some degree. Perhaps the neutrality between him and Amy Millan is only apparent when they both sing together on a song. But Campbell alone? Overpowering is sort of an understatement.

 

Any preconceived notions about Stars prior to In Our Bedroom are long gone. They sure have a knack for catchy, dreamy, whisper-y, saccharine-filled love and/or lust songs. This knack they possess, however, could be put to much better use than background music to the lives of self-absorbed, melodramatic students of Degrassi Community School. “What kind of use?” you ask? Eh, beats me.

 

*Not the same Matt who posts at Better Than Disco, a different one.

 

Take Me To The Riot Stars Directed By: Benjamin Weinstein High High | Low

Written by: Sara on August 27th, 2007 | Filed under Music Reviews