connor's blog

I know I don’t normally write about music (or write two days in a row), but I’d like to break those molds. Stars is a relatively old Canadian Indie Rock band consisting of two singers: a male and a female, named Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, respectively. The way I found out about Stars was from a little bird who sent me some of their songs. Admittedly, I haven’t listened to all their stuff or even close to half of it. But I’ll kind of go through what I have listened to, mostly from their June 21 release, The Five Ghosts.

Dead Hearts – This song gives me shivers when I listen to it. The blend of the male and female voices. The lyrics are awesome and the overall sound is fantastic. To me, at least, this song is talking about growing away from people, yet still remember the things you did together. It’s a sad song, but a good mood-setter for the album.

Wasted Daylight – Amy’s voice is incredible in this song. I haven’t really listened to the words, but the vocals are enough for me to put this song on repeat! Every once in a while, a high pitched sound comes up in the song and I love it. It’s not really noticeable though unless you look for it. I think that’s pretty cool.

I Died So I Could Haunt You – I love the title and meaning of this song. This is my favorite Stars song, in fact. I love the techno background instrumentation and the duo of voices, again, is marvelous. The best of the song is definitely the end. The entire song keeps building and building until it climaxes at around the 2:45 point in the song. The last line just sends shivers down my spine: “One day we all disappear / We’ll walk til we get to the harbor / they’ll never know we were here.”

Fixed – I don’t really have any special opinions about this song. It’s good enough to be on my iPod but it’s my least favorite Stars song. (Gosh that sounds harsh. How about “my least listened to” Stars song? That’s better.)

We Don’t Want Your Body – This song is completely different from the other songs I wrote about. This one opens up with these really heavy synths and then lightens up throughout the first verse. I love the beat in this song. Amy’s funky solo “You tune into my frequency / but that don’t mean a thing to me / cause I don’t want your body / I don’t want your body / your soul is searching ecstasy / so you can have some sex with me” is unbelievable! This is my second favorite Stars song.

Take Me to the Riot – I really enjoy this song. The verses are hushed, but the singing of the choruses is so loud and clear. It’s a really nice song.

Your Ex-Lover is Dead - The instruments get a little obnoxious at times, but overall, the vocals make up for the weird accordion-like sounds. So that’s good,

Basically, what I was trying to convey with this post is that I haven’t seen –or rather heard– this good of a collaboration of voices in a very long time. I’ve listened to so many male/female bands but this is one of the best –if not, the best– duo of voices. The only other band I can think of with vocals that rival Stars is Shiny Toy Guns.