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Review:
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Highly successful Canadian pop/rock band Stars was
founded by singer Torquil Campbell and keyboarder Chris
Seligman, releasing their first album back in 2001. At first
they had a more electro pop sound, but 2003’s Heart saw
the addition of vocalist/guitarist Amy Millan and bassist
Evan Cranley, with the addition of drummer Pat McGee shortly
afterwards. Three years in the making, Five Ghosts is their
brand new fifth album, and sees their sound moving from
indie towards a mix of bands like New Order, OMD and The
Killers, it is no surprise they have supported Coldplay.
After the lovely ethereal opener ‘Dead Hearts’ come three
Killer esque killer tracks mainly featuring Amy’s sweet
pop voice, including the single ‘Fixed’ (video on Female
Voices Blog). ‘We Don’t Want Tour Body’ is a curious mix
of New Order, The Streets and Donna Summer. After an almost
post rock number come three low fi numbers. Amy’s Katie
Melua like ‘Changes’ reminds me of a gentle version of Madonna’s
‘True Blue’, the other two are pleasant but unremarkable.
The band rejoins for ‘How Much More’ and it ends like it
started with the atmospheric ‘Winter Bones’. If you Google
Stars you get over a billion hits (1,210,000,000 to be exact!)
so being the kind soul that I am I had better give you their
Myspace and website,
www.myspace.com/stars and http://www.youarestars.com/home/.
The Album is available from their web store and all good
retailers in a multiplicity of forms, the 2 CD version has
extra tracks that didn’t make the cut, including the song
that gave the album its title, ‘Five Ghosts’. This song
also gives the album its air of lyrical melancholy. Curiously
Amy is now very much the lead singer, Torquil takes a back
seat throughout the album and in the video he stands around
like a spare part. It strikes me that the first half sees
the band in top form, but they loose their way when the
rhythm section goes off for lunch. This the gives the album
a split personality, heading off into commercial pop/rock
waters before totally changing tack as if the band are afraid
to loose their arty electro side (explored further on the
bonus CD). The result is therefore a split decision by the
judges, so pick up the phone now, your votes really count,
hang on, that’s the wrong show, so 8/10
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