Stars - Set Yourself OnFire

Tue 21st Jun, 2005 in Music Reviews

There’s just something about Stars that makes me feel warm. I’m still not over Heart, the band’s last release and I’ve spent many cold mornings and nights alone with the album.

It’s quite fitting then, that the Montreal act’s latest album is titled Set Yourself On Fire. In the same way you appreciate a warm bed or a hot drink much more on a freezing night, Stars’ warm moments are so much warmer once they’ve taken you to freezing point.

The sleeve artwork gives you a fair idea of what you’re in for. There’s a topless, pink balaclava-clad woman holding a pink explosive close to her chest. Yes, this record deals with what are quite possibly the two most important things in the world: sex and fire.

Much like Heart, Set Yourself On Fire is effective on multiple levels. On the surface, the album is a classy pop record, but the constant imagery in the lyrics loads the songs with emotion and hidden meaning.

As the album begins, a booming voice takes control of your stereo. “When there’s nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire.” Immediately, your brain is working overtime. The record bombards you with lyrics tying together sex, love and mortality with the recurring themes of hot and cold, fire and ice and you struggle to make sense of it all as Set Yourself On Fire goes from one extreme to the other. There’s houses buried to the window sills on the title track, oceans won’t freeze in Ageless Beauty and in What I’m Trying To Say, Campbell offers to take you to a place that’s warm and dry. There are no answers here; you get the feeling Millan and Campbell are trying to unravel these matters of love, sex and death themselves.

If you completely ignore the lyrical content, Set Yourself On Fire is a smooth and sophisticated pop record. The strings and brass on opener Your Ex-Lover is Dead and the stunning piano/strings arrangement on One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead) show off a pop sensibility second to none, while the keyboard sounds and intricate bass of the album’s title track ooze with the style of the band’s 1980s influences. The moments at which Stars are at their pop best though, are the ones where Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan share the vocal duties. While Millan’s clear, sweet vocals blend exquisitely with the smoother pop sounds and Campbell’s Bernard Sumner impersonation is evident on the record’s darker tracks, you’re always waiting for the two to meet and it’s those moments which make Set Yourself On Fire so pleasant.

If the lyrics get you thinking about love, sex and death and the arrangements seduce you into Stars’ world, it’s the combined effect of the two that gives Set Yourself On Fire such a strong emotional punch. It’s not rocket science: the dark and sinister moments match up with descending basslines and minimal instrumentation while the songs climb and build as the mood rises. On He Lied About Death  the beats and keys make you feel the sex and tension but seconds later, as Millan softly leads into Celebration Guns it’s the morning after and you sigh as you realise you’re back in the real world. It’s this tug of war between the sex and the mortality at every level which takes you up, down and everywhere in between.