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I hate to keep mentioning Pitchfork in every RTP review, but after seeing this pre-cursor to their review of Stars’ latest offering, I couldn’t resist:

“Not out in record stores until late September, the Canadian indie pop band and its label Arts & Crafts wisely made its theatrical new album available for digital sales before it leaked.”

Um, before it leaked?

Well, like Pitchfork, we here at RTP have already had ample time to listen to the record (thanks to a different enabler, I’m sure), and I have to say it’s pretty decent, save a few minor male vocalist-related annoyances.

I fell in love with Stars after hearing Set Yourself on Fire a few years ago, and later fell even more in love with them when I checked out their previous offering, Heart.

Then I fell even more in love with them after further exploring Amy Millan (said exploration may or may not have included a swiftly-rejected marriage proposal). But like most love affairs, mine with Stars came to a screeching halt the first time I saw them live (Chicago, Metro, 2006). The reason? In a word: Torque.

This dude is one of the most annoying performers I’ve ever seen. So annoying that I refuse to go into detail here, but those of you who’ve seen Stars live surely know what I’m talking about.

Unfortunately, this same love/hate (Amy/Torque) dichotomy is extremely noticeable on In Our Bedroom After the War, Stars’ latest release. With perhaps the exception of “Take Me to the Riot,” the standouts on this record are all fronted by Amy. “The Night Starts Here” and “Window Bird” are typical Millan-penned works of genius and hearken back to old favorites like “Ageless Beauty” and “Elevator Love Letter.” On the other hand, tracks like “Barricade” make me want to barf. They actually make me want to barf ON Torquil Campbell, because I can just picture him performing it live, gazing into the crowd and making fists of yearning in the air to express his own unconditional devotion to the feelings represented by a song he probably wrote while drinking wine and chuckling to himself about how crazy this thing called life has become, or how simple his perfectly arranged words can express the way he loves absolutely everyone (except for maybe the extreme right, but in a world full of weeds, even Republicans can be daisies sometimes).

Rev Dave said that upon first listen, the album sounds a bit adult contemporary, and maybe even a little elevator music-y. I don’t entirely disagree, but if you’re willing to swallow a little bit of Torque’s self-indulgence, what remains (especially the change at around 2:30 on track 9) just might remind you why you fell in love with Stars in the first place.

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