Stars iTunes “leak” today, first thoughts on the album
Posted by Pablo in The Yellow Stereo
This morning, as I looked through iTunes’ new releases, I was really surprised to see Stars‘ new album, In Our Bedroom After the War available to purchase (since it doesn’t come out until September 25). Thinking it was a mistake, I decided to grab it before iTunes realized their mistake, but it turns out that Arts and Crafts have posted the album on iTunes so everyone can hear the album legally if they want to, since it is going to leak anyway (as you can read in the statement on their site).
One thing I can say is that this album is going to be as polarizing to Stars fans as a Dubya speech on Iraq. Rather than go the direction the average fan probably wants, continuing the style found on “Ageless Beauty” or “Reunion,” Stars have turned the dial down and gone organic. Simple guitars and piano dominate, and the melodies are more akin to “One More Night” than anything off Set Yourself On Fire. A lot of fans will be calling it boring, but after one listen I believe a lot of them will be converted with repeated listens. Set Yourself on Fire was brimming with love and anger, In Our Bedroom After the War is more cool and calculated, and has its own merits. It’s not as good as its predecessor, but I still find a lot of heart here, and melodies that should have some staying power on repeated listens. In any case, it’s probably not an album that I should be judging too much after one listen, so all I can say for now is it’s worth checking out.
And, yet another place where you can download the album’s first single
Stars – The Night Starts Here
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Awesome, I was waiting until tonight to see if anyone posted about this, and I could listen to the album… We share many of the same thoughts.
I thought that it is not as good as Set yourself on Fire as an Album, but that is after first listen. I felt like some of the tracks were pretty intense emotionally, and as before I really like the way Amy and Torquil feed off of each other and work together making a lot of the album seem very lounge like.
It made my day when I saw the myspace message they ok’ed it for download. Hopefully it works out for them, and if the album sales are successful (via download) there may be more artists doing things like this and what the New Pornographers recently did.
Bought it from GalleryAC.com (more monet probably ends up in the band’s pocket).
I’m not sure anything could match “Set Yourself…” but I do like the album. The closer/title track is great, and I love the slow instrumental build of the opening track. “Life 2″ is my favorite at this point, I think…
i too downloaded from iTunes tonight. after one complete listen, i’d agree that SYOF seems like a better album…but i also thought that Heart was a better album when SYOF first came out! i think that some of the ‘radio-listener’ Stars fans (the ones that only know Ageless Beauty) will not be as impressed, but i’m confident this album will grow on me.
I rather enjoy it; different, but not disappointed!
I’m glad to see you all enjoy it… I enjoyed it on first listen, but it’s getting better with each spin of the disc…
finally downloaded this off itunes just now
will have my thoughts later tonight maybe.