Stars, the indie pop band based out of Montreal, recently released their sixth album, The North.
If you are familiar with any of their previous works, the style on this album will come as no surprise to you: Indie pop with a heavy emphasis on the lyrics and voices of the two lead singers, Torquil Campbell and Amy Milan.
They tend to feature synth based background rhythms despite never having used autotune in their work.
While this album lacks that frantic creepy energy that some of their previous albums— The Five Ghosts and Set Yourself On Fire— were steeped in, this new album still has some special moments of its own.
Its one single, “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It,” embraces a more guitar-heavy sound than normal for Stars, and in doing so, unfortunately becomes quite forgettable.
Another song, “Backlines,” which has a sound similar to Metric’s old single, “Gold, Girls, Guns,” has a sort of popping punk/electronic combo feel to it.
Overall, the album is tightly focused, almost formulaic.
It alternates song by song, back and forth between slower, more emotional pieces and upbeat, electronic-based beats. Nothing on this album really seems new.
From the incredibly sung duets to the drum beats and even the harps, it feels as if everything in this album has been seen on previous CDs. For example, “The 400,” a ballad that is the second to last song on the album, just sounds like a slower, less fun version of “Don’t Be Afraid to Sing” from their 2003 album Heart.
And “Walls” the album’s closing song and dubstep influenced duet, sounds remarkably like a two person version of “He Dreams He’s Awake” off their 2010 album, The Five Ghosts.
Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t buy their new album or should avoid going to their concert when they come to Baltimore on the September 23.
While lacking in several aspects, the album is good for new listeners who wish to become better acquainted with Stars’ work, and their shows are always great.
However, their older albums are better, and to truly gain an appreciation for their talent, I’d recommend purchasing one of those instead.
BEACON
If you’re one of those people who actually get your music legally, the question that you should be asking yourself is not whether this album is worth buying.
Instead, after buying this album you should be wondering whether it is worth going to Two Door Cinema Club’s concert on October 2 at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.
The answer is a resounding “yes.”
Two Door Cinema Club’s second album takes everything that was found in their original album and refines it.
While remaining upbeat and catchy, they’ve somehow added an overall feeling of loneliness if you listen between the lines, so to speak.
It’s as if they are making pop music in spite of their personal feeling and therefore wish to acknowledge those feelings in their work to those who are willing to really listen.
This is best seen on their single “Sleep Alone.” During the chorus, while remaining head-boppingly catchy, the lyrics twist into a litany against the fear of a lifetime alone.
This is followed up with “Pyramid”, a song about seeing too much, which switches from picked guitar verses to heavy three guitar power chord choruses.
The dramatic shift allows the band to emphasize the differences in tone between the chorus and the verse, which creates an intriguing effect.
The finale song of the album, the title song, “Beacon,” quickly shifts into verses based around some awesome sounding synthetic echoes despite an opening eerily familiar to that of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart.”
Although such effects were not featured heavily in the rest of the album, they amplify the uniqueness of the last song.
I would definitely say that Beacon is the best album I’ve listened to in a couple of months, and I would heavily recommend it to anyone interested in Two Door Cinema Club’s music.
