Stars "Heart" - Album of the Year ?

Also, check out Nightsongs which some people like even more.

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)

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'.

"Lovefool" meets Loveless?

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.

"elevator love letter" still one of the perfect indie pop songs

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

Early-period Auteurs and The Aluminum Group mixed with bits of Saint Etienne, yeah?

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

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.

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.

i love the nightsongs LP cover art. something about it. 'on peak hill' is a big one.

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.

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

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.

I don't know any other artist who has so transparently cribbed that singular style of melody-writing

Meant to just post a link, apologies.

You're RIGHT duh of course they also are Morrissey-cribbers

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

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?

The North is great (and is more New Order than No One is Lost imo) - try "Hold On When You Get Love..."

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.

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?

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.

I love ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ and really like most of the rest of their catalogue.

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.

I love ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ and really like most of the rest of their catalogue.

― 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.

This song is perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU7KGcrD_gc

It is!

New album’s good! Would love to see them live sometime.

We will always be a light
(You can see it from the surface, see it)