Set Yourself On Fire

Kinda fun indie Canadian record. Occasionally sounds a bit like Tegan and Sara. Sometimes sounds like Architecture in Helsinki. Often sounds entirely unique.

I liked this a lot. Musically and lyrically interesting and the play between the two vocalists really worked. The music went in some unusual directions in the back half, particularly the last few songs, which were great as individual pieces but I'm not sure quite gelled with the album as a whole.

Nice. A bit reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie. 4 stars.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Ageless beauty, The big fight, What I’m trying to say, One more night

Very nice album with beautiful arrangements and melodies. Reminded me of Death Cab for Cutie.

This is an agreeable album with a vibe that started off reminding me of The Beautiful South, but then transitioned into a more experimental sound that was very interesting. While I didn’t have enough time to listen closely to all the lyrics I did give the album a second listen and found more to like. There’s a lot going on here that would benefit from repeated listens - hopefully I remember to get back to this.

Nice! I like it!

This reminded me a lot of death cab for cutie. I had the chance to do a second listen of this today and each song got better on relisten. I was also playing balatro the first time and probably wasn't paying as much attention as I should've.

Hmm It's not what I expected from an indie album. One from Canada, no less. But I must confess that I like it a lot. It's got some catchy aspects and the mood is elegantly upbeat.

Never heard of this band before so didn't have any expectations going in. It was fun. I can tell there was clearly a bunch of people from Montreal who completed the challenge since there are a bunch of Canadian indie bands represented. I have to say it's great to hear more music from Canada. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Indifferent.

Another album that I faced with skepticism and ended up enjoying! This is the kind of compositionally creative indie I really enjoy. 4 stars 😉

Great indie album right up my street. Added to my frequent rotation.

Pretty bland but One More Night is a beautiful song.

Enjoyable indie pop with guitars padded out with orchestral arrangements. 3.5

Siri play indie

It seems I have a natural affinity with Canadian gentle indie with themes of death. I really liked most of this. Only criticism is that it doesn't really justify it's length. Cut out the weakest third and it would be great. Rating: 3.5 Playlist track: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead Date listened: 26/11/24

Okay, it starts disappointingly. I thought it was going to be one of those very dry "quiet, nice" albums from the early nights, to be filed with Turin Brakes, Starsailor and other such bland and forgettable pap. But as it goes on, it gradually gets more and more interesting, deep and experimental and becomes really quite brilliant!

Good

This was an interesting listen, if a bit of a stylistic hodgepodge. I am not a fan of the dual vocals, but I also think the vocals in general are the weakest part of the album. Fave Songs: Reunion, Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, Set Yourself on Fire, Ageless Beauty

I thought those female vocals sounded familiar and after some research I learn that she is also part of Broken Social Scene! That set's the bar a little higher for Stars, but I think they did a pretty good job of putting an album of good indie-pop songs together.

Not bad. But nothing too special

Grew on me

Indie pop, chamber pop, electronic. Ni fu ni fa.

Very 00s indie. Gives me huge vibes of bands like Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized. Also shades of contemporaries a la Arcade Fire and Death Cab. It's fine. I liked certain songs, but as a full project, it's a little too subdued for my tastes. Favorite tracks: "Calendar Girl", "Set Yourself On Fire"

I like the pairing of the lead singer's voices... goes well with this music, and the vibe is good, but it doesn't really have that hook that would elevate it. Fine.

Resonates with Death Cab for Cutie but songs not as good as

Canadian landfill indie. Pleasant but unexciting, like the filler in a playlist when you don't want wall to wall bangers. Better than some stuff on the list, and it would be well worth having some more bands from outside of the USA/UK, but there would be better choices.

Enjoyed a lot of this

An okay background listen

Another cool album! Haven't heard of this group, but it's some good indie rock/pop stuff. I enjoyed it, thanks for the selection! 3.5/5

There were some songs here I enjoyed and others that were in one ear and out the other. I don’t think we have gotten a lot of Canadian bands so that part was nice.

Stars went under my radar when they released this album. Which is surprising given that they're artistically related to Broken Social Scene, and that I really, really like that band. Listening to the first tracks of *Set Yourself On Fire* today, I also couldn't help thinking of Black Country New Road -- which shouldn't come as a surprise, since the latter are noticeably inspired by that sort of mid-noughts indie scene which also tangentially gravitated around Arcade Fire at the time. I admit that because I had a big day at work today, I couldn't do more than browsing through the second half of this LP, and that I should probably need to give the latter a more serious listen some time later. The thing is, and even with my incomplete listen, it seems to me that compared to all the references I've written up there (to which I could add another Canadian band named Clues -- far more abrasive and unpredictable), Stars sounds a little too demure and even timid to a fault. To me, it's not really the electronic flourishes which bring this lack of dynamics stakes, because those dynamics actually provide a quite distinctive flavour to a project also often displaying original textures and arrangements, as a matter of fact. This has more to do with the vocal parts, that I find a little too "gentle" and devoid of personality. But as I said, maybe I didn't focus on this record the way I should. So I'm giving this one the benefit of the doubt (in spite of tentative "neutral grade" that should normally place it out of my list of potential "keepers"). 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums? 8/10 for more general purposes? (5+3) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 8 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 10 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Not too memorable

This LP stretches itself much too thin trying to figure out what it wants to be, jumping from one early-aughts genre to another with not much melodic or instrumental thread to connect one track to another. There seems to be a larger narrative element at play, but the the sudden, distracting tonal shifts (and accompanying instrumentation changes) meant that the lyrics often fell by the wayside of placing another disparate track in context of the others. The best albums are those where each track feels unique but contributes to the whole, and this LP is definitely lacking when you sum up its parts.

Very much an 00s album with the soft pop style that feels like it wavers between emo love songs and displaced youth confusion. It doesn’t shock me a song from this album was used on the OC. Fits the time perfectly. Unfortunately it seems like more and more music from the 00s is not standing the test of time and is a pretty lame era of music. This included. 4.4/10

So bland. Blending in with a lot of user submitted bland albums.

Set Yourself On Fire is a bit bland for my liking, easy listening, some nice moments but really nothing memorable or interesting. 2.

Melancholic and mellifluous. There’s this thing about precious-pop Montreal bands showing up on this list of project participants’ lists. I’ve got one word: meh.

No stomach for this sorry sort of folky shit today. 1/5.

I wasn't very happy with it, I played it and barely noticed it was there. I had a hard time understanding its approach as the whole album seems like one musical idea. Sorry, it wasn't for me.