Stars – In Our Bedroom after the War

The O.C. spearheaded a rise in the record sales of bands whose music could adequately convey the torment of beautiful rich teenagers, having beautifully rich problems, in a beautiful and rich setting. The lyrics of ‘Your Ex-Lover is Dead’ from Star’s sophomore album ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ resounded in the hearts of Newport kids- ‘This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin/Tried to reach deep but you couldn’t get in’- and the spoken-wordy section at the start allowed the producers to feel smug and slightly avant-garde. However, if ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ was Newport Beach, California, ‘In Our Bedroom after the War’ brings Stars back to their Canadian roots. ‘My Favourite Book’ could have been written by- or for- Feist and ‘Bitches in Tokyo’ sounds like a new Broken Social Scene track (hardly surprising given that Stars is practically a B.S.S. side-project). Yet, it would appear that during the musical move from Cali to Montreal the emotion was lost. Songs such as ‘The Night Starts Here’ move along prettily, but as Amy Millan sings on ‘Midnight Riot’- ‘Sweetness, sweetness never suits me’. Stars are at their peak when Millan and Campbell’s voices intertwine over bittersweet melodies and heartbroken, tentative lyrics- the beautiful ‘Personal’, or ‘Life 2: Unhappy Melody’.

In an attempt to avoid tracks leaking pre-emptively, ‘In Our Bedroom after the War’ was released onto itunes a full two weeks before it reached shops. They needn’t have bothered. While the record contains some gems, they are lost in the lush production. Stars cannot seem to reconcile their B.S.S. tendencies with their operas of the heart, leading to uncomfortable shifts and mood and sound throughout the album. On ‘Today Will be Better, I Swear’, Millan notes -‘You never knew just how to put out a fire’- yet perhaps they shouldn’t be trying to put it out…