SOUNDTRACK: STARS-Heart (2003).
I found out about Stars with their second album but I like their debut quite a lot too. There’s a few songs that i don’t love, but overall the album is really solid.
The opening synths belie the beautiful guitar (and nice bass work) of “What the Snowman Learned About Love.” Singer Torq’s voice is low and muted while other singer Amy Milan has gorgeous harmony vocals. “Elevator Love Later” features’ Milan on lead (for some verses)–the album really comes to life with this song. It’s got a great chorus and a cool bass line that elevates the song above typical pop fare.
“Heart” has a melancholy piano riff (something Stars excel at) and some wonderfully poignant lyrics: “Sometimes the TV is like a lover, singing softly as you fall asleep.” And yet it, once again, has a really catchy chorus (with lots of “All rights”). “Woods” is mildly orchestral and has a plaintive vocal line and a sampled spoken word section (which I can’t identify).
“Death to Death” is one of my favorite Stars songs. A slinky discoey song with Torq’s cool verses and Milan’s sultry “I am destroyer I am lover” chorus. I love the sound of the next song (synthy flutes and the very clear guitar) that play throughout “The Vanishing” even though I don’t love the song.
“Romantic Comedy” surprises with its baritone guitar sound (instead of the sprightly synths), but the chorus is once again super catchy. There’s some great lyrics in this song as well: “You’re not bad, but you were just badly raised,” and the chorus “don’t walk away then turn and say I love you anyway.” “Time Can Never Kill the True Heart” is a beautiful song with a lovely sentiment. “Look Up” is a pretty Amy Milan sung song. I love the way the chorus’ words don’t pause for breath even though the song itself is not very fast. “Life Effect” is pretty song sung by Torq (I really like when the guitars come to the fore even though I think of Stars primarily as a synth band).
“Don’t Be Afraid to Sing” is the final song on the album,. It’s a simple ballad, and once again the bass line is great–nothing fancy but it’s a great melody behind the guitars and vocals. It’s got a great ending of an album sentiment: “We all come to an end / And we all end together.”
There’s a “bonus” track on my version of the album (cleverly hidden about 20 seconds after the previous song). It has a with a great hidden bonus track title–“The Comeback.” It actually sounds perfect with the album–an instance where a bonus doesn’t really feel tacked on. It’s a nice addition if you can’t get enough of the band.
Incidentally, the American version has the reddish cover above, while the original cover is this black and white one down here.
[READ: November 17, 2014] Silk
I enjoyed Mr Gwyn so much that I wanted to read more by Baricco. And when I saw that many of his books are so short, it was easy to grab them and devour them.
I didn’t know anything about Silk–somehow I missed it when it came out. It was even made into a movie, so it must have been a big important book (and it was a huge best seller). So imagine my surprise to see that the book is 91 pages and that each chapter is basically one page (sometimes half a page). And Baricco creates this beautiful, taut story that is really compelling, in what is really only about 70 pages of text.
I’ve admired Baricco’s ability to write gorgeous novellas, and this must be where it all started (his earlier books are somewhat longer than this). The fact that none of his stories are about similar things is also pretty amazing.
This story is about a Frenchman who makes his fortune buying silkworm eggs and the lengths and distances he is willing to travel for them. But it is also about something much more poignant. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 