Meditative Disco

No One Is Lost, the new album from Canadian band Stars, presents a bit of a difficulty in terms of writing a review. Each song has a pulsing eighth note guitar or bass, a washy synth pad and the smooth vocal delivery of either Torquil Campbell or Amy Millan (although there are a couple duets). The final product is an album that is so buttery smooth, so innocuously enjoyable, that it becomes downright meditative. What is so special about this album however, is that, even though it’s meditative, it also makes you want to dance.

All of the tracks are good, but the standouts have to be the ones sung by Millan. Her voice, velvety and breezy, transports you to a perfect spring day or a warm summer night. The funny thing however, is that her lyrics are consistently dark. On “Are You Okay” she sings, “No stopping an emotional war / I’ll give you more, I’ll be the soldier at your door / If you want me to.” Millan begs an emotionally distant lover to open up, all set to an 80’s backing track. Despite the smooth delivery and the bright instrumentals, every now and then Millan’s voice cracks a little, displaying the underlying emotional weight present in her songs to devastating effect. “This Is The Last Time”, the best song on the album, Millan sings “You’ve always sucked at your goodbyes / But you’re never gonna see my face” presumably to an ex-lover in the process of being dismissed. This track, and some of her other songs have a grown up, smarter, Best Coast vibe to them, such is their sunny power.

In terms of non Millard highlights, album opener “From The Night” begins like an old Vampire Weekend tune, with the synth drums and Campbell’s hushed vocals before it blows up into a disco dance tune (complete with background “woah-oh”’s on the chorus). “Trap Door” starts off sounding like a Soft Cell B-Side but soon reveals a catchier pop side, and ends perfectly with an 80s saxophone solo that sounds as if the whole album had been building towards it. It’s a humorous nod to a genre as well as a fitting musical statement.

Unfortunately, the meditative, sunny 80s vibe that makes this album so good also proves to be its undoing. Towards the end of the album, everything just starts to sound stale. The absence of any dissonance only adds to the monotony. By the time the closer “No One Is Lost” comes on, you no longer feel like dancing and the disco beat just sounds a little obnoxious. The album would have been better if it had been trimmed by a few songs (the title track, and “Look Away” seem like obvious choices). That being said, this record is still certainly worth a listen and most of the songs work well both individually and within the confines of the album. Breezy, pretty and harmless, play this while cruising around in the car at night or on a sunny day in a park.