A “best of” album to commemorate a career of consistency
Canadian indie-pop band Stars have released a career-spanning album titled LaGuardia. The album is comprised of 20 of the bands’ biggest hits from the early 2000s to pieces from their most recent studio album There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light. After nine studio albums, six EPs, TV appearances and features and award nominations, Stars still has an extremely dedicated fan base that has fallen in love with their electronic rock sound over and over again.
The album spans the band’s 20 plus year music career by putting together tracks like 2003s “Elevator Love Letter” from Heart and 2007s “Take Me To The Riot” from In Our Bedroom After the War. The album twists and turns musically as it goes from the synth-heavy, electro-pop tune of “Trap Door” to the orchestral based tune of “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead.” Though each track resonates differently, one key similarity throughout the band’s years of creating music is their lyrics, each track more real and bare-boned then the last. The creativity of the band through their lyrics can be heard in tracks like 2012s “Theory of Relativity” and 2008s “Undertow.” The album is adorned with only one live track, 2001s “Going, Going, Gone.” a fitting tribute to the bands’ first studio album Nightsongs. Another standout is the track “Dead Hearts” from the 2011 Polaris Music Prize-nominated album The Five Ghosts where we see the band at one of its most vulnerable states while dealing with the issue of death.
Stars have created an album for those wanting to hold on to what makes the band so special; their longevity and transparency. LaGuardia is part “best of” album and part reminder that the band is still around. Is this a round-about way for the band to let their fans know they might not continue to make music? Maybe. Is LaGuardia a good reminder to any music fan to take a walk down memory lane once in a while to remind oneself of the fascinating beauty of music? Absolutely.
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