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Rating: Set Yourself On Fire by Stars should even convince the most skeptical of what increasingly appears to me as a certainty, which is that Canada is today the Eldorado of singer-songwriter pop-rock.
I would be tempted, in talking about this "difficult third effort", to succumb to sentimentalism, to be guided, in describing the luminous path outlined by the thirteen tracks that make up the album, by the reference models of the Canadian band, groups dear to me from the recent past, like the Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Saint Etienne, Momus, but that wouldn't be fair. Doing so could give the wrong impression of facing clones, yet another group that, in recent times, has cleverly relied on 80s sounds that have come back into vogue, risking plagiarism on some occasions.
Let's be clear: the music of Stars is not where you would expect radical renewal, absolute originality, or a milestone. It is grafted onto a tradition that could be called "reformist" by nature or at most, to quote a track from the album, from "Soft revolution" (but, beware, the cover, censored in the USA, might shift the emphasis on the second term of the oxymoron), which lives on even minimal shifts, rarely seeing someone push the boundaries significantly within a decade. Therefore, models are important, perhaps more than in other genres; however, it's the way of relating to them, the wisdom and taste in hybridizing them, along with the genuineness and freshness of inspiration and the ability to write songs, that make the difference, that give that aura of light that makes them clearly distinguishable from other pop groups. The Stars from Montreal, in my opinion, possess all these qualities, they have this aura.
"Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" is one of the best opening tracks heard this year: slightly dark atmospheres, rich Marr-like guitars and the contribution of strings that remind a little of their compatriots and friends The Dears, and two magnificent voices duet to put an end to their love affair, those of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, a blonde who seems like a cross between Wendy Smith and Suzanne Vega. The title track evokes a livelier Magnetic Fields, but the long farewell is subtle, almost whispered. In "Reunion," Millan's voice and guitar riffs vaguely reminiscent of the Jesus & Mary Chain are the protagonists. In "The Big Fight," the pendulum swings towards pop, and for a good half unfolds as an effective pop duet, only to transform halfway into a kind of New Order-like instrumental electro-song: a small gem.
But it is their versatility, the ease and skill with which they handle various musical elements of the pop-rock tradition that strike and inspire admiration.
The inspired classic ballad "Sleep Tonight" gives way to the nervous and new-wave "The First Five Times"; the alternative rock, with included noise, of the intense and unsettling "He Lied About Death," one of the album's peaks, fades, giving way to sunny pop like Polyphonic Spree, appropriately enriched with rhythm and electricity.
These "Stars" may not be of the first magnitude, but for the musical firmament, they turn out to be indispensable, especially for some "constellations," better seen, of course, in the cold skies of Canada.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (04:16)
God that was strange to see you again
Introduced by a friend of a friend
Smiled and said "Yes, I think we've met before"
In that instant it started to pour,
Captured a taxi despite all the rain
We drove in silence across Pont Champlain
And all of the time you thought I was sad
I was trying to remember your name...
This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin
Tried to reach deep but you couldn't get in
Now you're outside me
You see all the beauty
Repent all your sin
It's nothing but time and a face that you lose
I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose
I'll write you a postcard
I'll send you the news
From a house down the road from real love...
Live through this, and you won't look back...
Live through this, and you won't look back...
Live through this, and you won't look back...
There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm not sorry there's nothing to say
I'm not sorry there's nothing to say...
02 Set Yourself on Fire (05:39)
In a village in the hills
House buried to the window sills in snow
In a prison yard at night
An Alsatian barking for the stars to go
In the attic of a house
In the slats of light which creep across the room
In a forest grove at dawn
Where the animals sleep hidden in the gloom
On the 97th floor overlooking Tokyo
In Camden road in a second floor flat with
Dilworth down below
There is only one thing
There is only one thing
In a cancer ward where the patients sit
Waiting patiently to die
In an aeroplane high above the place
You finally left behind
In a cage where only one thing could be free
And it's not you and I
In a cage where only one thing could be free
And it's not you and I
In every single place that has ever, ever been
Hiroshima, Los Angeles and each town in between
There is only one thing
There is only one thing
One thing
In the darkest part of you that you have ever seen
In the smile of the child staring at the TV screen
In the diary of a priest, in the sheets that lie upon his bed
Out there amongst the waves and inside your lover's head
There is only one thing [x6]
There is only one... thing
20 years asleep before we sleep... forever
20 years asleep before we sleep... forever...
03 Ageless Beauty (04:05)
Ageless beauty
Cruelty makes its holes
But on the shoreline
Time will hold its promise
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
Tattered fingers
Lingering on the warm and foolish
Hardened faces
Graceless, we'll lose the battle
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
Oceans won't freeze
So loosen your heart
Underestimated
Undefeated in this love
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
You can see it from the surface, see it
We will always be a light
04 Reunion (03:41)
In the year of my decline
Sucking freezies in the rain
Driving twisted in the suburbs
And then driving back again
Seventeen and half alive
Headlights illuminate the school
Inhale the powder from the science class
Yeah nearly dying felt so cool
Your face is all that hasn't changed
You're reassembled just like me
But when I reach to touch your hand
You stroke mine gently
All I want is one more chance
To be young and wild and free
All I want is one more chance to show you
You were right for me
You were right for me
I'm back in gym and it's the same
As my name tag floats away
I had six too many drinks last night, yes
And thats why I made you stay
Plus I always wanted you
You liked to rock it in your car
You said you didn't understand me
Because I always tried to see too far
Well "Tainted Love's" too fast to dance to
So let's leave them all behind
They hated us with everything they had
And we hated them in kind
All I want is one more chance
To be young and wild and free
All I want is one more chance to show you
You were right for me
All I want is one more chance
To be young and wild and free
All I want is one more chance to show you
You were right for me
Reunion, reunion...
11 Celebration Guns (03:05)
And so tomorrow there will be another number
For the one who had a name
Desert wind and a perverse desire to win
History buried in shame
[Chorus:]
All the beating drums
Celebration guns
The thunder and the laughter
The last thing they remember
[Chorus]
And then the next day
How will you know your enemy
By their color or your fear
One by one you can cage them
In your freedom
Make them all disappear
Six hundred sixty-six hundred sixty days
Two guards for one uncharged
This morning's papers, ink stains my fingers
My hands grow darker everyday
[Chorus x4]
Goodnight, sleep light, stranger [repeat x3]
12 Soft Revolution (03:16)
We are here to save your life
The fool, the drunk, the child, and his wife
We won't let the sun go down
We gonna chase the demons out of town
Singing when you feel alone
Backwards through the megaphone
Singing to the ones you love
And the ones you'd like to be rid of.
We are here to take the blame
To take the taunts and if the shame
We are here to make you feel
It terrifies you, but its real
It will keep you up all night
And in the flood of morning light
Spilling out across your room
You say the words will get there soon
The revolution wasn't bad
We hit the streets with all we had
A tape recording with the sound
Of the Velvet Underground
A K-Way jacket torn to shreds
And a dream inside our heads
And after changing everything
They couldn't tell we couldn't sing
After changing everything
They couldn't tell we couldn't sing
They couldn't tell we couldn't sing
And that changes everything.
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