(t5!) Heroes Of The Zeroes Albums: #19: Stars – Heart (2003)

I know it’s fun playing the villain. At times, we all enjoy being grouchy, cynical, and unsentimental. We put on this unsympathetic facade for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. But admit it, deep down inside, we’re a bunch of saps. We long for magical first dates. We cry during weddings. We have our own hidden little set of romantic comedies in our DVD collection. At the end of the day, The Beatles are right all along: “Love is all we need.”

Along with the Death Cab For Cutie spin-off The Postal Service, Stars made the world-weary music society a little bit tenderer in 2003. Their sophomore record, Heart, is a preciously romantic pop album stocked with synths and drum machines. Even the title sounds unapologetically lovey-dovey. Fronted by the French Canadian duo of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, the album is an unabashed collection of musical love stories, especially when the two unify together in a duet; which is also the album’s finest highlights, like when they harmonize during the quirky choruses of aptly titled “Romantic Comedy” or during the album coda in ender “Don’t Be Afraid To Sing”.

Heart starts the only way an album with this level of affection is meant to start: with each band member introducing themselves like “I am Evan and this is my heart” in a track called “What A Snowman Learned About Love”. It’s such a cheesy tactic for any other album, but it’s a very effective strategy for this one, especially accompanied by dazzlingly swooning synths and an eccentric time signature. It eventually reveals lyrics after a long crescendo with Torquil and Amy joining together to recite the waltzing verses over picked acoustic guitars: “How the heart bends/and summer she sends/a sky that refuses to die,” what a snowman learns about love is that the sunshine rays will destroy him. The endearing and inspired poetry doubling as lyrics doesn’t stop at the first track. It actually hits all the right romantic spots of your spotty heart better as we move along. They do a tremendous job giving optimism to those lost and aching in “Look Up” (“So far keeping it together’s been enough/But look up the rain is falling/Looks like love”), and they narrate young love splendidly in “Time Can Never Kill The True Heart” (“Hold my hand so you don’t fall/Catch your breath as the gulls call”)

The follow-up to Heart, the equally sappy Set Yourself On Fire, probably contains many of Stars’ better songs, such as “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”, “Ageless Beauty” and “Sleep Tonight” (although, none of their tracks top Heart’s “Elevator Love Letter”, a guitar strumming brand of winsomeness about unexpected trysts). However, Heart is a more flawless and consistent effort, and there are no tracks in here that one would consider album filler. Maybe, that’s just my own heart beating with affection for this album—when you’re in love, you think the world is perfect. Sappy, isn't it?