ALBUM REVIEW: Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War

Stars
In Our Bedroom After The War
Arts & Crafts, 2007

When I first put on Stars’ In Our Bedroom After the War, I thought about how much it sounded like the soundtrack to an imaginary John Hughes movie. In my mind’s eye I could practically see Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall up to their usual teenage hi-jinx in enormous houses with immaculate lawns. The soundtrack of the eighties: huge Fairlight synths, Linn drums and possibly Jim Kerr warbling something about not wanting us to forget about him.

In Our Bedroom After the War is, in the parlance, a grower. Repeated listening reveals more layers, and a depth that indicates that this music was made by more than a few simple minds. It’s an easy to listen-to, enjoyable, and yet clever album. However, there’s a slightly troubling air of anonymity, as if Stars can’t quite decide which one of the guises they present on this album cuts closest to the quick of who they really are.

Oh, the eighties touchstones are all present and accounted for, obvious to those who came of age in that decade, and waiting to be discovered by folks who can’t imagine how Corey Feldman ever got famous. On Take Me to the Riot, co-vocalist Torquil Campbell pitches the vocals so far into Morrissey territory, you start to wonder whether you put on Viva Hate by mistake.

My Favorite Book, sweetly sung by Amy Millan, contains a viola solo that could have been lifted right off of Come On Eileen. Following that, Midnight Coward begins with the words “Sweetness, sweetness...” which, inducing a Pavlovian response, makes those of a certain age think “…I was only joking”, melting walkmans, and dancing with daffodils in ones’ back pocket. On and on it goes, so very eighties: Genova Heights even has a little Bronski Beat dancing in the chorus.

Torquil Campbell is also known as a moderately successful actor, with appearances including Sex and the City and Law & Order. This possibly contributes to the slight distance placed between the vocals and the listener. Where Amy Millan’s voice has a distinct and unique timbre about it, Campbell’s takes on a number of guises, from the aforementioned Morrissey, to the pure Paul Heaton tenor of Barricade, which comes across like a Long Hot Summer for the IMF generation.

Overall, even when you’re not playing detective, the songs are interesting to listen to and well written, from the light eighties pop, to the ending of Window Bird, whose loudly melting guitars recall Graham Coxon at his wonkiest. Like Stars’ last album, 2004’s Set Yourself on Fire, In Our Bedroom After the War is an easy album to admire, and it sounds great. However there’s something at the core of it that keeps it distant and ironic, which itself is a true testament to the eighties, isn’t it?

Review by Greg Hood-Morris

Agree? Disagree? Email Greg at criticizegreg@gmail.com

Comments

[barbmia]

Hmm. Not a bad take, Hood-Morris. I can't help thinking they're missing a bit of the soulfulness and intimacy of 'Set Yourself on Fire'.

It definitely gets better the more you listen though (which is my kind of record)!

[wow gold]

very good...