Stars
“Heart”
Arts & Crafts
“I am Evan, and this is my heart.” So begins
“Heart,” a song cycle about love and relationships from
the Montreal-based rock band Stars. A wave of warm synths washes
over the intro of the first track, “What the Snowman Learned
About Love,” before evaporating into layers of piano and
electric guitars.
This warmth permeates the album with lush instrumentation
throughout. The second track, “Elevator Love Letter,”
kicks things up with sharp, near-staccato guitar chords and a
faster pace, but it still hits with the force of a pillow. This is
a good thing.
“Heart” is, at heart, a pop album. For all the
smooth layers of strings and delicate bass lines, the flawless
harmonies are what make the album memorable.
The best songs are male-female duets between the two primary
singers, especially in “Romantic Comedy.” Torquil
Campbell sings to his absent lover, “Don’t walk away;
I’ll turn and say I love you anyway,” and Amy Millan
responds, “You’re my foe and my brother and lover and
friend.”
An easy listen, the weakness of “Heart” is in its
failure to experiment. Members of Stars are also part of the
Toronto collective Broken Social Scene, whose recent classic
“You Forgot It In People” merges raw Radiohead-like
experimentalism with pop structures.
Aside from the tropical leanings of “The Vanishing,”
Stars unfortunately exchanges that sound in favor of more uniform
drones and harmonies.
The album grows soft in the middle, with the bland misfires of
“The Woods” and “Death To Death.”
Thankfully, it catches its breath as it nears the finish,
concluding with the softly triumphant “Don’t Be Afraid
To Sing.” With “Heart,” Stars will have everyone
singing together.
-David Greenwald