My Melodramatic Friends

It's always refreshing to meet ideologists and melodramatics. They make me feel like I'm a bit more innocent and moral, that I do have my name on the long list of true humanists.
So, here is Stars, an indie rock band from Canada. The first taste of their music I had was Calender Girl, a song about a girl who thought of committing suicide then regained hope from everyday life. The melody was good, but too soft, too sweet without a touch of eccentricity in it. But since there was nothing else for me to listen, I decided to fill up my playlist with this new artist. There were three albums that they released when I found them: Nightsongs, Heart, and Set Yourself on Fire. All of them were surprisingly unknown. Filled up with great expectations, I delved into all of their songs. Within a month, Nightsongs was the best album of the year, a melodramatic, tragic, but piercing piece of work. So I introduce some of their songs here.

 

 

a 1990ish album cover; quite corresponding considering this was released in 2001

 

1. International Rock Star

The narrative of a woman and a man, inserted throughout the music is what amplifies the emotion. It's actually from a 1965 movie 'Collector' that they extracted the voice from. I never watched the movie, heard it was about an insect collector kidnapping and eventually murdering his student. The song is a replica of the movie: the woman hesitates from escaping from the collector in a vain hope that he is in love with her, while the collector thinks love is 'keeping her down'.

 

2. My Radio

http://youtu.be/1kACBhm8Mak

This song is just about listening to the radio. Seems nothing special, but hearing the hissing voices coming from the radio in the obscure hours of dawn, says Stars, is a remarkable experience. 'We kissed to that voice each night, bathed in pale reactor lights', 'All day long I fantasize in the dark behind other people's lies' are my favorite part of the lyrics. The melody is intimate, like you are in the small corridor holding a dull blue radio, putting it close to your ear as possible and breathing together with all the songs.

 

3. Write What You Know

 

It's the only song that's spiting others. The melodies are dripping cold, and the lyrics fiercely attack the streotypical Hollywood movies, with sexually attractive female and expectable storyline.

 

As you can see from these songs, Nightsongs is definitely a sad-core, melodramatic chronicle. I recommend you listen to these songs after 1 A.M., when your senses are heightened and your empathy with the singer unbearable.