Stars "Heart" - Album of the Year ?

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)