Heart (CD)
When an album starts off with each member of the band announcing, "I am ____, and this is my heart," you should probably know straight off what you're getting into. Stars have come to rock the master of your cardiovascular system, and if you're not prepared to accommodate a healthy serving of lyrical earnestness, you should probably just Remove All from your Winamp and go play some street hockey, you manly man you. Stars is yet another Montreal act keeping the indie pop dream alive in '03. Less all over the map than the Voltron-like Broken Social Scene, and without the fetishist spice that off-kilters the otherwise straight-shooting pop of The Hidden Cameras, Stars could very easily be overlooked, or avoided like a couple prone to PDA. But as of yet we don't have immigration quotas on music from the Great White North, and "Heart" is a valuable pop record for those of us whose cardiac muscle hasn't stained completely black.
| Tracklisting | |
| Disk | 1 | |
| 1 | What the Snowman Learned About Love |
| 2 | Elevator Love Letter |
| 3 | Heart |
| 4 | Woods |
| 5 | Death to Death |
| 6 | Vanishing |
| 7 | Romantic Comedy |
| 8 | Time Can Never Kill the True Heart |
| 9 | Look Up |
| 10 | Life Effect |
| 11 | Don't Be Afraid to Sing |
| Sarah Conley
- Redondo Beach, CA, USA |
| Heart is Stars' warm-up album, and is exactly the type of record you want to find in a band's back catalog. After loving the curiously great sonic blend of Metric and Weakerthans that is their album Set Yourself On Fire, Heart will not disappoint. Songs like "Elevator Love Letter" and "Romantic Comedy" could easily be exported to the later album, but remain in this collection as delicately realized auditory meals. All together, Heart is a solid album that points in the direction of the band's progress. Really how can you resist, it is their collective heart. | |