stars: sad robots ep (2008)

stars: sad robots ep (2008)

September 22, 2008, 12:37 pm
Filed under: EP, review, video | Tags: 2008, amy millan, music, shain shapiro, stars

Stars
Sad Robots EP •••½
Arts & Crafts

A few weeks ago, Stars posted a small flash animation on their webpage, a ticking clock counting down to September 1st. Good PR stunt indeed, as it forced everyone to come up with their own reason why the band did this. That is buzz, chatter and presumption. Truth be told, the end result was another release: the digital/tour EP, Sad Robots. Other than a live version of ‘Going, Going, Gone’ (originally on their criminally underrated sophomore album Heart), this quietly released set of six is all new, signalling the beginning of a new stage for the Montreal sextet following last year’s full-length, In Our Bedroom After The War. But Sad Robots is not a full release, and shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s clever at times, but nothing groundbreaking. Instead, it is a welcome stopgap, a surprise set of new songs that, while appreciated, does not elevate their canon to another level. It’s simply more of the same, as good as the same can be.

Their personified robot is far from jubilant, as to be expected. The opening instrumental, ‘Maintenance Hall, 4AM’ begins the brood and innately embodies its title. It sounds tinny, possibly even recorded in a hall at four in the morning. It careens through screeching keyboards that are haunting but unremarkable, as if the robot is slowly turning on, shunning its inanimate ambivalence. After two minutes, it fades into this set’s central nervous system, ‘A Thread Cut With a Carving Knife’. The robot is up, disenfranchised by the day and vocal in its scorn. This is the most bombastic of the set, solidifying yet again why Stars are so desperately lovable in each over-the-top and obviously melodramatic vocal exchange. Both Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan are crying to each other about a relationship of some kind, be it with a person or the greater world, and their wails, blended in with bouquets of drone pop and electronic blips, engender an automated sense of the serene.

The robot might sense the world is on the way out, but its lack of emotion inhibits it to be bothered. Instead it’s best to accept one’s fate and await the post-everything we all hypothesise about. As it approaches, Millan flutters through the soft-as-lace pop of ‘Undertow’ before diving into ‘Going, Going, Gone’, a sparse and airy elegy signalling the end of, well, everything and the beginning of the robot shutting down. It sounds apocalyptically dire, but in fact it’s as good as anything Stars have ever done. The end is realised, accepted even, creating a sense of uplift within the malaise. The robot is done, content with what it has seen, happy to be shut off. And as such, an ending of sorts is reached with ’14 Forever’, the most endearing and positive track on the EP. It may be another electronically tinged venture into sad-bastard pop and keyboard drone, but it’s not sad per se. Campbell sounds empowered, almost saved. But it’s all over too soon for that, as the EP closes on the quiet ‘Sad Robot’, reminding us that beneath the nuts and bolts we’re all just racing towards the end.

Sad Robots makes for clever and intense listening, but nothing more so than the releases dotting Stars’ past. Instead, it’s another reminder of how powerful this band is, even though their power lies in a bleaker, more malaise-rich paradigm. But death makes life important, and understanding, even playing with such actualities, can be blissful. Just don’t expect this robot to ever have a smile on its face.

Shain Shapiro
UK release date: 01/09/09 [MP3] 15/09/08 [CD, from sadrobots.ca]

 

‘Going, Going, Gone’, live at Coachella 2008

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