Canadian group Stars is known for their intensely layered synthy sound, but their songs and vocals are great enough to stand without all the deep instrumentation – as shown by the Tiny Desk Concert they did recently for NPR, stripped down to just Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan’s voices with Evan Cranley’s acoustic guitar for back-up. Torq and Amy are always able to get across a lot of emotion, but it comes through even stronger here, and the haunting lyrics shine through wonderfully.
This discussion currently has 4 responses.
February 5, 2011
A very wise man once told me a band can be exposed really quickly when they go acoustic. You can tell immediately their songs hold up without the “flare”. Thanks for posting this. It seems in a situation like this, bands could become very self concious, but I love when they don’t. That second song “Fixed” is tremendous. They sold me this record today. Nice!
February 5, 2011
Oh. And my next born will be named Torq.
February 6, 2011
Yep, I agree, Scott. I really like the big, fully orchestrated sound, but if you can’t keep interest without it, then there’s something fundamentally wrong with your songwriting. They’ve been doing one of their older, extremely synth-heavy songs “Ageless Beauty” acoustic at their shows lately, and it’s incredible. If you like The Five Ghosts go back and pick up Set Yourself on Fire – probably my favorite album of theirs.
February 8, 2011
Ahhh… yes, I do have Set Yourself on Fire, but I haven’t listened to it in ages. Time for a re-listen. One of those I picked up long ago after a quick preview listen and never got back to it really.