From the roster
that brought the wonderful Broken Social Scene to
our attention comes
Stars, a four-piece more in keeping with indie rock’s
accessible nature of the mid-1990’s. Is that a bad
thing? Not when the songs are as good as on Set
Yourself on Fire.
Sophisticatedly put together, Set Yourself on
Fire opens with the woozy delights of “Your
Ex-lover is Dead”, where strings collide with horns
and glockenspiel. Vocalists Torquil Campbell and
Amy Millan throw vicious barbs of verses at one
another before coming together for the chorus,
where they don’t get back together and live happily
ever after: “I’m not sorry I met you”, they begin,
before concluding that “I’m not sorry it’s over/I’m
not sorry there’s nothing to save”. These Torontonians
approach their music with arch ideals.
The pop brilliance of “Ageless Beauty” cannot be
faulted, while “Reunion” and “What I’m Trying to
Say” mine the same guitar pop vein found in the likes
of Spoon, with a loping bass line from multi-instrumentalist
Evan Cranley on the former. Stars write, ostensibly,
about love gone bad – but it’s as much about the
process of relationships ending as it is the result.
While “Reunion” pines for reconciliation, “The Big
Fight” follows the album opener with Campbell and
Millan detailing the minutiae of how the separation
came to be. Tinkering electronics and keyboard pulses
are found throughout Set Yourself on Fire (and
never more so than on the excellent “He Lied About
Death”), but this is ostensibly a guitar pop record.
Fortunately, it’s one with heart and a selection
of brilliant songs. More focussed than predecessor Heart, “Sleep
Tonight” and the gorgeous violins-and-voice of “Celebration
Guns” find Millan taking lead vocal to delightful
effect, but for the most part it’s either the combination
of she and Campbell or Campbell himself, with his
hushed tones, that commands the attention on Set
Yourself on Fire.
