I first saw Stars this past year in Seattle.  On stage, they are nothing if not dynamic.  The urgent whispered lead vocals of Torquil Campbell contrast very well with the female lead singer, Amy Millan’s, laid-back and lilting soprano.  The coupling of these two singers creates a controlled, but adult, live show. 

One of the best parts about the performance was the unusual care that the band takes with its stage presence. The light show is dramatic, but it is not arbitrary like in most concerts, fitting into the songs’ actual ebbs and flows. Campbell, who is also an actor who has appeared on Sex and the City and Law & Order, has a theatrical presence onstage that is refreshing in the midst of lead singers serenading their microphones rather than their audiences. 

Stars were a lesser-known band until recently.  The band was originally formed by Campbell and keyboardist Chris Seligman in Toronto and moved to New York City and eventually back to Montreal. The collective of the band members, also including Evan Cranley and Pat McGee, records under the name Broken Social Scene. 

On June 7 of this year, Stars released an album called The Bedroom Sessions.  Most of the songs are the same as their 2007 album, In Our Bedroom After the War, but there are a few absences and new additions.

Most of the tracks on the album are much more raw than on the wide-studio release—like the album name implies, the songs were recorded at home—and also include banter between the musicians in between the tracks of the song.  The result is an interesting before-the-fame kind of album—these are the same songs that made Stars blow up in the United States. At the same time, the songs are stripped down and different—like they were recorded in between naps on a downy pillow, not in a cold and sharp-edged recording studio. 

One of Stars’ most popular songs, “The Night Starts Here” begins the album.  The synthesizer is a lot less subtle in this recording as it is in the studio album—the strong synthesized strings and beats underneath the voices, along with an electric guitar, make the song a lot more upbeat, aggressive and rhythmic than its later variations.  

A new addition to The Bedroom Sessions is “The Ghost of Genova Heights,” which is simpler, more lyrical and story-based in contrast with the majority of Stars’ songs.  Stripped down to only a simple synthesizer, drums and voice, the middle section of the song employs Campbell’s higher register and a high-pitched synthesizer to make it seem more like music from the ‘80s than anything else. 

Another welcome addition to the album is the song “Window Bird,” which features Millan’s lovely, higher register doubled on itself.  The song is simple enough to really highlight Millan—all the other “stuff” in a Stars song can sometimes overshadow her light voice.  This time, the band keeps it simple with voice, drums and a bass with a light synth on the chorus.

It’s always nice to get a retrospective of a band as good as this—you get to see where they came from, but you get to recognize that they really are at a different place now.