Stars - Set Yourself On Fire (2004)

What are they putting in the water in Canada? How is it that so many cool bands keep popping up there? Broken Social Scene, The Dears, The Arcade Fire... and now Stars. Set Yourself On Fire was released in 2004 on the Arts & Crafts label (home also to Broken Social Scene), however, I have only recently discovered it. The opening track - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - sets the stage for what is an album of wonderfully lush rock-pop songs. The vocal duties on the album are shared by Torquil Campbell (a guy) and Amy Milan (a girl) - both of whom have soft, warm voices that touch you in all the right places. With horns and washes of New Order-esque keyboards and computer bips and bleeps filling out the standard guitar, bass, drums line-up, Set Yourself Is On Fire is anything but a standard album. The lyrical content, like any great pop album, addresses matters of the heart most closely - and to read the lyrics alone, all seems like some beautiful poetry, cut-and-pasted straight from the human psyche onto paper. The album will lift you up and carry you along for the entirety of its 13 tracks. Calendar Girl - the album's final track - will leave you warm and fuzzy and wanting more. Its all about staying alive.

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