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Stars are quickly carving out their own niche among their peers. And in doing so, they're writing some of the most fluid and organic music of their lives.
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While it's all tricky, well-crafted music about heartbreak, nothing here breaks hearts the way the best Stars tracks over the years have done. Instead, Stars settle for big hooks and big emotions that inspire more admiration than empathy.
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Alternative PressListening to singers Torquil Campbell and Amuy Millan is like watching two dancers perform an urgent ballet: Their equally lovely voices merge and seperate, always working in unison and sometimes soaring above the other. [Jul 2010, p.127]
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The Five Ghosts is another album in a long line of works that are sure to make teens weep and well-adjusted adults hopelessly nostalgic. [Spring 2010, p.65]
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The weaknesses of The Five Ghosts are few and far between and, overall, it's an enjoyable and satisfying record for one of indie pop's most consistent bands.
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The Five Ghosts is the band's most consistent album yet, and their best since 2005's "Set Yourself On Fire."
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Ghosts skirts its predecessor's instrumental self-indulgence, allowing its tracks to swim in grandeur--but not drown.
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At its best moments, the latest effort from Stars yearns for the flicker flame of "Set Yourself on Fire," but it is neither as gorgeous as nor is it as jarring a mixed bag as "In Our Bedroom."
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What it boils down to is that everything on this squeaky-clean album is carefully calculated, from perfectly placed synthesizers to haunting vocals. The Five Ghosts is something for which it can be suspected fans will be jonesing for some time.
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The music brims with optimism, full of major chords, sparkling synthetic sounds and tireless electronic beats.
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Q MagazineThe Five Ghosts deserves to chaperone them to greater things. [Sep 2010, p.121]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 22
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Mixed: 2 out of 22
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Negative: 2 out of 22
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Sep 20, 2011
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Feb 6, 2022