[review 2004: the best of the year]

Stars was once a good example of New York hipster music: suave, cool, laidback, too sophisticated for its own good. But then a funny thing happened: the band picked up and moved to Montreal. They’ve been hitting the right notes ever since.

It’s not that the formula has changed a whole lot over the past couple of albums. Set Yourself On Fire might rely a little less on keyboards and electronics than Nightsongs, but otherwise the major difference in sound isn’t strictly in instrumentation or production values. At some point after the move back to Canada, Stars picked up the mantle of the soft revolution and took it to heart. The result has been two of the most emotional albums released this decade, a potent antidote to the narcissism and nihilism of a lot of other indie bands out there today.

Set Yourself On Fire covers much the same ground thematically as Heart, but does so with more verve and energy. “Ageless Beauty” is this year’s “Elevator Love Letter,” a straightforward rock song with a heady, almost shoegazer atmosphere. “The Big Fight” is the closest Stars comes to the old Nightsongs material, recreating aspects of the electrolounge sound but not the cool, calculated demeanor; it’s a smoky, whispered duet that plays up the psuedo-relationship between singers Torquil Cambell and Amy Millan before it dissolves into an extended spaced-out coda.

From the sparkling opener “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” straight through to the wistful “Calendar Girl,” Set Yourself On Fire satisfies. The one failing here is that the album doesn’t recreate the live experience; only in concert can you truly see the heart and energy they put into every song. It’s enough to convert anyone who goes to see a show. But if it just served as a reminder of what Stars is like live, Set Yourself On Fire would already be a success; as a proper album, it’s the best work Stars has done to date.