Stars - Set Yourself on Fire (CD)

All Music Guide

The artwork for Stars' Set Yourself on Fire is eyecatching and dramatic, like a protest painting or Keith Haring subway drawing. And that'sbefore you find the inside shot of a woman in a ski mask and little else, contemplating a flaming hand torch. The art direction's boldness complementsthe maturity in Stars' music, where nothing's just indie pop and string arrangements sound as perfect and just right as guitars and keyboards.Vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan annunciate every word with careful precision, and they sing of remembered high school romances, dead exlovers, and drunk current ones in basic but powerfully evocative language. It's a twentysomething life, told in short story form. In opener"Your ExLover is Dead", Campbell and Millan's characters don't rekindle their relationship, but they don't apologize for its end, either. "I'm notsorry I met you", they harmonize. "I'm not sorry it's over/I'm not sorry there's nothing to save", and the song's strings and brass build t...o asurging outro that's the wordless acknowledgement of everything they had. The title track is augmented by strings of its own, keening dizzily in thebackground of an undeniable electronic pop pulse, and "What I'm Trying to Say" does the same thing, but replaces the strings with electric guitar. "Reunion"'s nearperfect guitar pop brings to mind Spoon, and midalbum mates "Sleep Tonight" and "First Five Times" have differentviews on the intent of (and locations for) modern romance. The songs blend trumpet, keyboard effects, acoustic guitar, and electronic and analog Read more Less