that's when i knew you were gonna make me lonely

well a happy valentines day to you dear reader. while i find myself quite loveless on this quasi-holiday, i am still quite happy because i will be driving to boulder to see Stars tonight. while Stars album Set Yourself On Fire was a top ten here at A4D last year and i want to hear those songs live, i really, really hope that there will be some older songs. and when i say older songs, i mean those from their surprisingly forgotten debut Nightsongs. sometimes i think the group has undergone enough changes internally that they've distanced themselves from this release. when it was released a number of tastemakers instantly connected to the group's remake of the Smiths "This Charming Man" and some major labels began to circle around the band. the album even included vocal cameos by then unknowns Emily Haines (Metric) and Kendell Jane Meade (Mascott). alas there were whispers of ongoing label drama that kept the band from building upon that interest and like things in this industry tend to do, the fervor was all but gone when their follow-up Heart was released two years later (which was well received overseas, possibly because their influences are heavily drawn from the uk). the group was fortunate enough to find itself involved with the Arts & Craft label for that and their most recent album. with the attention the label (and montreal) has received, the band was able to start retaining the attention they have long deserved for their classy pop tunes. i love Nightsongs because it sounds so romantic and effortless. toss on this song here and you will hear what i mean. there's an Anglophilic charm that permeates from the song. this track lacks the poptronics of their latest and instead contains Torquil Campbell's silky, confident vocals dominating a subtlely contrasted drum machine and airy string arrangement that sounds as if it could have deceivingly been culled from a mix tape of obscure british pop from the eighties.


Stars "On Peak Hill"