2005 was a massive year for Arts & Crafts, the “little label that could.” Apart from an eagerly-anticipated new album from flagship act Broken Social Scene and a widely-acclaimed LP of bedroom pop that made BSS’s Feist a bona-fide indie sensation, several smaller Toronto acts put out their latest efforts to critical acclaim.

One of these second-tier acts, Stars, includes several BSS members, although their music is in a different vein to the supergroup. Their most recent album, Set Yourself on Fire, is not nearly as warped or fragmented as the “pop” music on Broken Social Scene, and is correspondingly much more of a “pop” affair.

The draw-card of Stars has always been the girl-boy tension between lead vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. This dynamic tends to be milked in a noirish sex-play fashion by bands like the Raveonettes or the Brunettes, or ignored in favour of alternating lead-vocal duties with little or no duetting (Sonic Youth would be the most obvious template). Campbell’s soft, almost androgynous vocals put paid to the first option—he’s no Lee Hazlewood—but they usually sing together. This gives the whole situation a unique ambiguity. Are they friends? Siblings? Lovers? The same person?

The lyrics provide little clarity. The songs don’t tend to follow obvious “he said, she said” gender roles and that works a lot better than you might assume. If you’re going to hear a power ballad duet, you want it to be clear that Michael Bolton has had his heart broken by Celine Dion. If you’re listening to people lampooning the state of modern relationships, you don’t really give a toss who sings what, as long as they sound like they mean it.

The boy-girl vocals and soft pop musical settings combine in a deceptive way. Anthemic strings and cooing vocals make most tracks sound a lot like the traditional love duets of the past. Consequently, you expect them to be presenting the same optimism and romanticism. Yet in the same way the crunchy distorted synthesizers (made with gear borrowed from Lali Puna, surely) cut through the cheese, the open-eyed realism of the lyrics jar just often enough for you to realise that you are not listening to lovesick Top 40 fodder.

Set Yourself on Fire is almost a concept album—a life-cycle of love and loss. There are fledgling relationships, confusions and misunderstandings, and awkward meetings with people from the past.

Our narrators present real people with affection but not undue sentiment. These are your stories and your friends’ stories and they’re catchy as hell.

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