Stars: The Five Ghosts

Anyone else pick this up today? I have been known to call Stars my favorite band, from time to time. (I listened to this one while finishing my last article on biologydude) Love them.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the album? My initial impressions are very positives. I have listened through it about 3 times so far, and I am really digging it. The album starts off really strong with some good tracks, and kind of slows down near the end. (Don’t most albums anyway?) I think I am already going to like it more than “In our Bedroom After the War” even though Bitches in Tokyo is a great song.

Edit: Have a listen here.

I like it much, much, much more than their previous. I note that Pitchfork complained about the production, but to my ears it sounds like classic 80s post-punk - think Tears For Fears circa The Hurting.

Also, this is easily Amy Millan’s strongest outing yet with Stars - her vocals are fantastic all the way through the album.

Im still absorbing it.

The tunes seem solid, but I can’t help but agree to a certain extent with that Pitchfork review. Somehow the dynamics of the band, as opposed to be singers, doesn’t seem to pop as much as they need to. I want more songs that hit like ‘Take me to the riot’. I’m sure it will grow on me though.

As an aside, I saw the Stars in Boston a few weeks ago. It was really surprising to me what a young crowd they draw. I swear me and the members of the band were the only people over 30 in the room, the rest of the crowd seemed like drunk college freshmen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just made me feel kind of old.

When I saw them on their last tour, I noticed a rather young crowd as well. (And I was 22 at the time, so that is saying something) I swear the girl standing next to me was like 14.

They are great live. Torq came down into the audience in a song, took a hit off of a dude’s bowl, and kept singing.

I would agree with Madkevin that I really like the production on the album as well, they are doing more of what they did back on Heart, and I liked that album a lot. I think the almost went too far with “In our Bedroom after the War” (Though there are some really good songs on there). I would also agree that Amy Milan is really good in this one as well.

Yes, if anybody out there is a Stars fan but hasn’t seen them live, it’s a must. Torq is a crazy man onstage (and a super-nice dude off-stage - the first time I saw them he was working his own merch table after the show and we got into a great conversation about whether Meat Is Murder is a better record than The Smiths*).

  • Answer: Yes, but not as good as Hatful Of Hollow.