I had never heard either of these albums before last week.
Interestingly enough, I had only heard of The Stars because years ago I heard a less than 10 second filler clip from their song "Take Me to the Riot" as a musical interlude between 2 pieces on NPR's Marketplace Money. I liked the sound so much that I emailed the "music editor" to find out the song and she sent me a full page (yikes!) email reply. For those interested, she gets all the music interludes from her CD collection...
So, perhaps The Stars had an advantage going in.
Here are my impressions:
Stars: Set Yourself on Fire
Still catchy.
Loved the airy sound of the female lead, not so much the male.
Surprised by frequency of sex-with-girlfriend as theme. I kinda thought that had been thoroughly mined already.
Can't tell if the songs are aiming to be inconsequential (if so, bravo!) or if that was an accident.
The moment I knew the album was not going to advance: lyrics "and I was drunk as shit".
Come on!
the verve: FORTH
What a treat!
All songs very solid and lush.
Not afraid to explore beyond the boundaries of the 3 min radio-ready tune.
Could use more rhythm variety, and with it some more creative percussion.
Too many songs would benefit from having an actual ending... as is, they just keep fading until you can't hear them anymore.
Some delicate echos of Pink Floyd on "Numbness".
Rare to listen to a whole album and not want to skip ahead at least once.
Unfortunately, no songs where I want to sing along.
Verdict: the verve: FORTH advances!
Nice review. Pithy. Cutting.
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When do we get our next assignments?
"Set Yourself on Fire" works well as an album, but I can see your points, Steve. But it's end is a bit like that of the movie of "Return of the King"--there are at least 3 place when it seems like it's certainly going to end this time...and then there comes another song.
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