Stars- Do You Trust Your Friends?

Stars- Do You Trust Your Friends? 8.8/10

This is actually one of the most brilliant albums I have heard in the longest time. It is so brilliant because the songs are solid, both lyrically and musically and the musicianship is top notch. This is probably because it’s the same album that I have loved for the past two years. This album is the long awaited cover album of Stars’ tunes off big hit disc “Set Yourself on Fire” which came out in 2005--for the past two years they’ve been promising a cover disc, but nothing until this year. They threw out a couple of teasers on the Arts and Crafts Samplers, featuring the Most Serene Mix of “Ageless Beauty”--which is fantastic, it has this light guitar rift that is similar to a ukulele’s sound. I always regarded this as a filler disc for Stars, between their member’s solo projects, both lead singers have solo projects--Amy Millan alone and Torquil Campbell in Memphis. Millan just released her first album in 2006 and Memphis released their second at the beginning of 2006. Highly recommend both. I was initially worried about hearing my favourite songs ruined, however they picked bands that are really amazing like--the Dears, Final Fantasy, Jason Collett, Metric and more obviously electronic Junior Boys. Most of the artists featured kept Stars’ vocals, which is cool however both Apostle of Hustle and Jason Collett used their own, which is a great change however they kind of made them their own songs duplicating their own style. More dynamically was Metric’s take on “He Lied About Death” echoing Emily Haines’ solo project--she starts of with a piano and morphs into more of a Metric sound, emphasizing the “don’t fuck with our lives part” mixing it with “oooh-ing”. I was pretty let down to find out that this track was purely just that, Metric rooted out all the lyrics and repeated the words “don’t fuck with our lives” and “oooh-ing”. I really dig Camouflage Nights and Kevin Drew’s take on “Soft Revolution” a pretty powerful song on it’s own with the musical techniques they use. In the chorus of the mix they added a more choir sounding bit which works. There’s more of an emphasis on everything and Amy’s voice on the verses sounds more separated. My personal favourite is Final Fantasy’s take on “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”. It has his eerie sound that most of his (being Owen Pallet) music has, emphasizing parts with a not-quite-fitting violin part and super dynamic piano parts. He kept all their vocals and only that, he filled the rest in with his own take beginning with the “When there’s nothing left to do you have to set yourself on fire!” bit at the beginning, he used the voices of many people instead of just one, the overall effect is more powerful. Throughout the verses he incorporates a super strange piano part, that sounds like it would be simple to play. As the verse draws nearer to the chorus he introduces the violin, also strange. I like it, it reminds me of the movie Casper from the late ‘90s with Christina Ricci and Devan Sawa, classic. However that doesn’t take away from the effect, this is definitely my favourite cover of the whole album. I’ve heard another Final Fantasy cover of Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love” which is keeps the cuteness but sounds completely different. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ia2Fnw_SB_o (This is the link for Final Fantasy’s “This Modern Love”)Despite the late release this album makes up in it’s artwork and the dynamic covers it features. But you might not appriciate this album if you didn't absolutely love "Set Yourself on Fire".Track Listing:your ex-lover is dead (final fantasy) set yourself on fire (montag) ageless beauty (the most serene republic) reunion (jason collett) the big fight (minotaur shock) what i'm trying to say pt. 1 (the dears) what i'm trying to say pt. 2 (the dears) one more night (apostle of hustle) sleep tonight (junior boys) the first five times (the russian futurists) he lied about death (metric) celebration guns (camouflage nights with kevin drew) soft revolution (the stills) calendar girl (young galaxy)

Download: “Ageless Beauty” (Most Serene Mix), “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” (Final Fantasy) and while your at it check out Amy Millan’s cover of Death Cab’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”--http://youtube.com/watch?v=ICVvbZ_dhbU