― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 01:11 (twenty years ago) link
― keith (keithmcl), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 01:12 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.sequentialrandomist.org/images/userimages/sars.jpg
Posted: 07 Apr 2003 09:50 am Post subject: SARS outbreak source located! - spreading from eastern canada - causes flu-like symptoms - has already claimed lives in ontario - quarantine of lead singer highly recommended
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 02:44 (twenty years ago) link
Torq had a bad couple of years trying to sign Stars to Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures label in LA. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out. It's good to see him back with such strong material. His singing voice has become one of the most beautiful around, his lyrics are moving and insightful, and the music smoulders prettily (sometimes a little too slickly). If ever the 'clever adult pop' of the mid to late 80s (Smiths, Prefab Sprout, er, Deacon Blue?) comes back into fashion, Stars are going to be huge.
― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 06:31 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.barflyclub.com/listings/london.html
― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 07:09 (twenty years ago) link
This is very OTM. I listened to Heart again tonight, and now I'm regretting not placing it higher (or at all, truth be told) in my year-end thing for PopMatters. (Like it... ahem... matters.)
But, yes, certainly not "album of the year" yet one of the best of 2003.
(And anyway, what's wrong with being "wuss-pop" and tough?)
― David A. (Davant), Sunday, 11 January 2004 09:09 (twenty years ago) link
I agree. There were only a few others that stood out, but Elevator towers above them.
― christhamrin (christhamrin), Sunday, 11 January 2004 09:35 (twenty years ago) link
Yes, and the few others, imo:
"Heart""Romantic Comedy""Look Up"
(These are all brilliant, the rest range from okay to very good.)
― David A. (Davant), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:26 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 12 January 2004 01:27 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 12 January 2004 01:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Barima (Barima), Monday, 12 January 2004 03:11 (twenty years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 19 August 2004 00:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:18 (nineteen years ago) link
"STARS . SET YOURSELF ON FIRE
On October 12th, "Set Yourself On Fire", the third album in the history of Stars will be released in Canada.
Recorded largely in Montreal and mixed by Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck, Phoenix, Grandaddy), Set Yourself On Fire sees Stars build upon their already acclaimed catalogue of songs about life, love, death, heartbreak. and the need to set yourself on fire when there's nothing left to burn."
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 22:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:20 (nineteen years ago) link
Also, check out Nightsongs which some people like even more.
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 30 September 2004 05:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 10 April 2005 10:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Sunday, 10 April 2005 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
I think I'd only ever seen Set Yourself On Fire before this, and for $35 or something.
Ha ha Jim have we found another band apart from Fleetwood Mac we both like?? (were there any others? probably)
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 10 April 2005 20:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Sunday, 10 April 2005 22:00 (nineteen years ago) link
re: StEt, Ian Catt was so impressed with the first album that he offered to work with them, and mixed three of the songs on 'Heart'.
― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 10 April 2005 22:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 11 April 2005 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 11 July 2005 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 11 July 2005 23:36 (eighteen years ago) link
"Lovefool" meets Loveless?
― etc, Thursday, 20 October 2005 22:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lukas (lukas), Thursday, 20 October 2005 23:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 October 2005 23:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Momus (Momus), Friday, 21 October 2005 07:16 (eighteen years ago) link
listening to this to the first time after many years of avoiding a revisit, as it's associated with a very...specific set of moments. still probably the definitive Canadian indie-pop record of at least the last 20 years. and much more solid than any of their follow-ups. I wish they hadn't felt the need to "rock out" or go more heavily conceptual/ambitious on the records that followed.
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Thursday, 7 March 2019 01:24 (five years ago) link
"elevator love letter" still one of the perfect indie pop songs
― ciderpress, Thursday, 7 March 2019 01:31 (five years ago) link
it is a perfect song but these days I gravitate more towards the feather-light Saint Etienne style deep cuts that are wittier than I remember
Who made you happy last night?I don't know his name but Christ can he fight
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Thursday, 7 March 2019 01:34 (five years ago) link
Early-period Auteurs and The Aluminum Group mixed with bits of Saint Etienne, yeah?
― enochroot, Thursday, 7 March 2019 01:43 (five years ago) link
When I was 23 and these guys were pushing 30 I was like “why does it have to be so twee, you are adults, I don’t get it”
Now I am old and my emotions remain childish and I’ve been listening to Stars all week and they are amazing
Weird band to grow into loving
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 12 April 2019 14:17 (five years ago) link
I still like both albums, but Set Yourself on Fire > Heart. In Our Bedroom After The War had a lot to like about it, too... 'Take Me To The Riot', 'Midnight Coward'... I lost interest after The Five Ghosts, though.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Friday, 12 April 2019 14:29 (five years ago) link
i read fgti's post. i don't remember "heart," but i remember liking the next three or so albums a lot, but fell off them in early 10s. so i pull up this album, hear first spoken intro- ohh, yeah, i def know this song and recall the album now. so i rewind the thread to 2003. "oh fuck, i remember _reading_ this thread, in the DU library? around SYOF? how can i...know that?"
*tbi brain: you DON'T. better now?*
this feeling is not even nostalgic, it's sort of like a cold hard spray from a hose. that aside, i am enjoying the music.
― Hunt3r, Friday, 12 April 2019 14:44 (five years ago) link
i love the nightsongs LP cover art. something about it. 'on peak hill' is a big one.
― meaulnes, Friday, 12 April 2019 23:50 (five years ago) link
oh and '14 forever' from the sad robots EP is a deep cut
oh man I love the new order-ism's of No One Is Lost.tempted to say they haven't made a bad album.
― campreverb, Saturday, 13 April 2019 17:28 (five years ago) link
There is definitely a gulf between their "great songs" and their "bad songs". I never picked up until this year just how deeply informed by Morrissey's melody-writing this band is... I don't know any other artist who has so transparently cribbed that singular style of melody-writing
― flamboyant goon tie included, Saturday, 13 April 2019 17:33 (five years ago) link
Amy Millan admitted it! I know that 'How Much More' from The Five Ghosts was one where Amy Millan was deliberately trying to be Morrissey.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 13 April 2019 19:29 (five years ago) link
I don't know any other artist who has so transparently cribbed that singular style of melody-writing
― dorsalstop, Saturday, 13 April 2019 19:48 (five years ago) link
Meant to just post a link, apologies.
You're RIGHT duh of course they also are Morrissey-cribbers
― flamboyant goon tie included, Saturday, 13 April 2019 19:58 (five years ago) link
oh man I love the new order-ism's of No One Is Lost.tempted to say they haven't made a bad album.― campreverb, Saturday, April 13, 2019 5:28 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― campreverb, Saturday, April 13, 2019 5:28 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'll have to give all the post-Five Ghosts stuff another chance (or a first-time listen in the case of some of it) ... Which is generally considered the best of their stuff from this decade?
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 13 April 2019 20:05 (five years ago) link
The North is great (and is more New Order than No One is Lost imo) - try "Hold On When You Get Love..."
― dorsalstop, Saturday, 13 April 2019 20:34 (five years ago) link
100% on 'Hold On When You Get Love', 'Backlines' from that album too.'This is the Last Time' and 'Are You Ok?' from No One Is Lost. The latter brings me back to a recent bad breakup and oh man.
― campreverb, Sunday, 14 April 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
any stars fans?
i grew up very fond of much of their peers - metric, BSS, etc, but always found they missed the mark for me. the delivery put me off. i revisited lately and now find something really magic about this band. they're almost like a fictional pop group or something? i can't get my head around it... a really intimate, moving universality in those songs, yet the music is really nothing exciting or interesting. it's weird to me. it's just making me happy at any rate. the 'nightsongs' cover art is really gorgeous.
any other gems within their collective i should be digging out?
― maelin, Thursday, 4 March 2021 08:48 (three years ago) link
love the first album so much (still makes me think of walking around Montreal on winter nights when I lived there) didn't really care for anything after that. saw them live once and they were super-friendly.
― so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Thursday, 4 March 2021 16:21 (three years ago) link
I love ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ and really like most of the rest of their catalogue.
― hamicle, Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:31 (three years ago) link
I like Torquil's voice a lot, so the Memphis albums are worth getting, too. Saw them on their Heart tour, where they sold a homemade tour cd with "Drive By" from a KCRW session, simple but a favorite hook from them. Not sure it's been released officially, but worth searching out.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:46 (three years ago) link
― hamicle, Thursday, March 4, 2021 12:31 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Exactly my opinion as well. I don't remember Nightsongs at all though so I guess I need to revisit.
One song came on shuffle and my wife asked if it was a broadway cast soundtrack due to Torquil's emotive singing style, which was funny to me and very otm. I think it was off of In Our Bedroom After The War. Plus, the contrast to all the shy indie pop, slacker indie, or haunted shoegaze singing she was used to hearing from my collection made it really stand out.
― Evan, Thursday, 4 March 2021 19:31 (three years ago) link
This song is perfect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU7KGcrD_gc
― Indexed, Thursday, 4 March 2021 21:25 (three years ago) link
It is!
― hamicle, Thursday, 4 March 2021 21:59 (three years ago) link
New album’s good! Would love to see them live sometime.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Thursday, 9 June 2022 03:33 (one year ago) link
We will always be a light(You can see it from the surface, see it)
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 24 July 2022 14:06 (one year ago) link