First off, this album has pretty great cover art, if a little too similar to Explosions in the Sky's The Earth Is
Not A Cold Dead Place. (This is old news though.) Let's see if this works:I guess I have a thing for the 'wall of text' aesthetic. Anyway, this album is full of sweet, tender pop songs with a Canadian twist, which is a nice way of saying that they are love songs that aren't as bald about it as most American pop music. Or at least it seems that way to me. The opening track, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", is a good place to start, as it is characteristic of the whole album. It's certainly presented well, with an irreverent sample to lead in to the song. The vocals are wistful and longing, the strings paced very well, and the sentiment is not lost. The whole album is like this: clever, emotional, unfulfilled.
It's all pretty good. So why is it not great? I suppose it's all relative. There are too many albums out there by other groups, bands I would consider to be peers of Stars, that offer a greater dynamic between songs and as a whole on their albums. I guess it's sort of like a cat without any claws; fine and pleasant enough on its own, but pitted against a cat that has claws, it isn't going to stand up as well. Still, this isn't a bad album by any means, even if I would like to see the metronome moving faster at times. I think the album as a whole warrants more listening, but I'd be hard-pressed to chose it over some of the other music in my library.
In Other News:
I got sunburned this weekend, just a little. Volunteering at the art fair was fun, though.
I need more sleep and guitar.
