In Our Bedroom After The War by Stars
Harlem had it's Renaissance writers.
Toronto has the music collective known as Broken Social Scene and while most of its different permutations of bands produce very good, smart music, I tend to prefer the band Stars. I'm not really sure why because I almost never go for the high drama theatrical type pop stuff. I like what I like and I usually like it loud, but I can appreciate people who write, sing, and/or play really good music and manage to do so without turning the amp to 11. It's even better when they can tie a whole album of songs together in a common theme, which Stars does around the title of the release. Funny how that works. Anytime you make that leap to a cohesive theme album, it becomes something more than music. That's usually the point where an album crosses the line and becomes a package of art instead of something that just appeals to the base musical instincts.
Stars, musician-wise are basically a number of players in the Broken Social Scene circle, but the real attraction of Stars are singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. It probably doesn't hurt Stars' popularity level when one of its primary members is a former Canadian teen TV star, but based on the talent of one Mr. Campbell he was destined for greatness in one way or another. He writes, he sings, he acts in theater and television. Someone this talented is obviously going to get recognized. That's not to slight Amy Millan. She has a wonderful voice. But when you combine that voice in interplay with Campbell, singing songs about relationships and the boggling mystery of how we ever wind up with each other, there's just something that reaches another level of just mere duet music. This is a drama unfolding before us and still it's a drama that pretty much all of us have gone through at one time or another. Most of us stumbled through it instead of eloquently singing through it as they do here.
I hate the term concept album except on the occasion that it's used to describe something horribly gone wrong. Something like Kilroy Was Here by Styx. I mean, I hear your domo arigato Mr. Roboto, but I'm just not believing it. This, instead, is a theme album that happens to present the songs in a dramatic fashion without resorting to the Dennis DeYoung brand of cheese. (Holy shit. I can't believe I've devolved into a comparison with Styx.) Trust me. It's really the opposite end of the spectrum. While there are many good songs on this release, you really need to listen to the whole thing at once. You'll be blown away by how smart it really is.
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