ARTiST: Stars
TiTLE: In Our Bedroom After The War
LABEL: Arts & Crafts
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 55:54 min
SiZE: 80,0 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Aug-13-2007
RELEASE DATE: Sep-25-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. The Beginning After The End 02:20
02. The Night Starts Here 04:53
03. Take Me To The Riot 03:49
04. My Favourite Book 04:06
05. Midnight Coward 03:45
06. The Ghost Of Genova Heights 04:36
07. Personal 04:07
08. Barricade 03:52
09. Window Bird 04:44
10. Bitches In Tokyo 02:50
11. Life 2: The Unhappy Ending 04:16
12. Today Will Be Better, I Swear! 05:49
13. In Our Bedroom After The War 06:47
Release Notes:
True to form, the new Stars album contains two songs
about protesters and no protest songsùTorquil
Campbell and Amy MillanÆs chamber-pop troubadours
remain doggedly interested in people, not their
ideas. (StarsÆ best song is ôElevator Love Letter,ö
about CampbellÆs Gatsbian love for rich-girl Millan;
their worst is ôHe Lied About Death,ö about Bush.)
Even confined to the first subject the bandÆs skill
varies: ôTake Me to the Riot,ö warm and expansive,
is a fine shallow anthem, but ôBarricade,ö a wistful
ballad about the romance of cruelty (ôHow could
anyone not love the terrible things you do?ö) isnÆt
Nabokov; it isnÆt even Mickey Spillane.
In Our Bedroom After the War, though it contains
nothing on the level of the bandÆs best or worst, is
the handiest inventory yet of StarsÆ obsessions,
M.O.s, strengths and failings. A young band and
pretty, concerned with surfaces which always turn
out to be warped or pocked in ways many wouldnÆt
bother to notice; sonically generous, lyrically
inclusive; a little full of themselves. The lyrics
of the albumÆs first real song, ôThe Night Starts
Here,ö are a list of the kind of things Stars songs
are about: ôthe time we have,ö ôthe task at hand,ö
ôthe dusk at dawn,ö ôthe being free,ö ôthat big
black cloud over you and me.ö The litany hums along
through skittering drums and distant, twinkling
keyboards, and eventually Campbell and Millan sing
together, and itÆs a little beautiful, the way
couples leaving restaurants are beautiful, or senior
prom. Such carpe noctum is StarsÆ strong suit; few
bands are as good at making songs to score nighttime
journeys of nebulous purpose. Sometimes they
strainùôLife 2: The Unhappy Endingö sinks under a
too-trivial circular melody and a cinematic conceit
that doesnÆt workùbut the songs most in danger of
being intolerable can become highlightsùthe
penultimate ôToday Will Be Better, I Swear!,ö with a
title and chorus sprung from Sufjan StevensÆ
nightmares, would close the album better than the
awful title track. (Hemingway condemned war for the
lovers it tore apart; Stars for the damper it puts
on young urbanitesÆ days.)
When not embracing the pretty bits of the cosmos,
the band contents itself with caressing innerspace.
ôMy Favourite Bookö is the best showcase yet for
MillanÆs loose whisper, not as fine a song as Set
Yourself On Fireæs ôAgeless Beautyö but a less
enveloping one over which Millan has better control.
Similarly, ôThe Ghost of Genova Heightsö may be
Torquil CampbellÆs finest moment, a slice of goofy
lite disco that channels the Decemberists through
Ray Davies Jr. and washes the gunk from each. These
two solo outings are In Our BedroomÆs contributions
to the small pantheon housing ôElevator Love Letterö
and ôAgeless Beauty,ö and though theyÆre lesser gods
itÆs the first time a Stars album has birthed more
than one. Elsewhere, as usual, the band gets bogged
down in the hostility of their love, and their
efforts to analyze it are at once less shallow and
less effective than Heartæs snappily titled ôDeath
to Death.ö Love for Stars has always been violently
exclusive, as ready to kill those who donÆt matter
as save those who do, and though ôBarricadeö
addresses this paradox more directly than ever, itÆs
a sodden torch song, a chore; ôDeath to Deathö
sounded like mid-period Garbage, which is what all
songs should sound like.
This continues to be StarsÆ weak spot: their
beautiful-people narratives are never quite strong
enough to live unsupported by sonic candy. ôThe
Ghost of Genova Heightsö and ôMy Favourite Book,ö a
silly ghost story and straightforward love song
respectively, rise to the top buoyed not by their
emotions or observations but by keyboards and
ôdoo-doo-dooös. In Our Bedroom After The War is
StarsÆ most consistent, nuanced album, and says good
things for the future, but Campbell and Millan wonÆt
write a perfect record until they learn what their
songs need, and abandon the inevitable few tracks on
which itÆs refused. Perhaps perfection is too
abstract, though; perhaps Stars are too close and
warm to bother. I canÆt protest that.