Stars
Do You Trust Your Friends? (Arts & Crafts)
By Kim Newman
Published: July 1st, 2007 | 6:03pm
Do You Trust Your Friends? is a song for song remix/cover album of Stars’ 2004 orchestral-pop gem Set Yourself on Fire, with a clever name. Interesting concept (what would it be like to produce your own tribute album, handpicking which artists you want covering your work?) or simply cheap filler until a band can release original material? For Stars fans, it’s probably a combination of both, what with the varied results from some of their friends who’ve either opted for a strict remix (Junior Boys’ “Sleep Tonight”) or cover (Jason Collett’s “Reunion”).
In fact, that latter cover is probably one of the most exceptional reinterpretations of the Stars' quietly beautiful pop as the Broken Social Scene alumnus transforms the song into swaggering ‘70s blues rock. There’s also the Apostle of Hustle who makes “One More Night” into a lost Matthew Sweet track, albeit one with lots of samples, and Final Fantasy’s remix of “Your Ex-Lover is Dead,” which keeps the original vocals intact but dumps the instrumentation in favor of soft strings and piano in order to highlight the dramatic orchestral movements.
The Stills’ “Soft Revolution” is probably the worst reexamination of Stars’ material as it has been transformed into a latter day Ennio Morricone rip-off complete with the pre-requisite pan-flute found in spaghetti western soundtracks. And just why did the Dears need to separate their remix of “What I’m Trying to Say” into two parts? A more cohesive remix with less experimentation might have worked instead of this mess that seems to have no goal.
Issue #26
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