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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

What's going on / Music Thursday To-Do: Stars

Posted by Robert Bell on Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 10:40 AM

Stars performs at Revolution Thursday.

STARS
9 p.m. Revolution. $16.

Torontonian quintet Stars has spent the last decade crafting the sort of beautiful, propulsive pop tunes that can give weight to the most mundane of activities, transforming that headphone-clad walk to the post office into a cinematic voyage of bittersweet heartache.

Need proof? Just try not to get all wistful and nostalgic while listening to "Ageless Beauty," from the band's 2005 breakout album "Set Yourself on Fire." It'll take you right back to that confusing, aimless period after college when you were still trying to figure things out but mainly just drank too much and got your feelings stepped on a lot.

The group's most recent long-player, "The North," has been hailed by many critics as a return to form after a couple of missteps. The opening track, "The Theory of Relativity" finds Stars appropriating the woozy synth textures of the chill-wavers and putting them to their own decidedly less hazy pop purposes. The title track recalls The Smiths, the maudlin Anglo-pop favorite that is perhaps Stars' spiritual forebear.

Openers at this all-ages show include the glammed-to-the-max Diamond Rings and the '80s-pop-informed guitar rock of California Wives.

Tags: Stars, Diamond Rings, California Wives

        
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