Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The Canadian dream-pop ensemble Stars took everybody by surprise with 2004's Set Yourself on Fire, probably even themselves. It was sonically expansive, labored, on the psychedelic side, but what seemed like just another kaleidoscopic headphone record turned out to hold one powerhouse song after another. In Our Bedroom After the War is mellower, without so much of the emotional turmoil that seethed under the surface of Set Yourself on Fire. Amy Milian's mournful voice takes center stage in torch ballads like "Window Bird." Sometimes it's a dull slog, but then you get a gem like the ludicrously titled "Bitches in Tokyo." It's a melange of Milian's voice, piano, space bleeps, hippie drums, virtuosically phased shoegazer guitars in an urgent uptempo strum -- just about perfect. And when Milian sings, "Temporary battles can take up half your life," she makes you wonder whether that might be the half you end up remembering fondly.