YICK!!! I thought I was having trouble getting on board with Stars, but this is just going too far. Enough already. This bald, unblinking Lennon-esque embracing of love and understanding is retarded. Artists like Stars and Cliffhanger are what give these mushy territories a bad name. Making music to make love is enough, without talking about it in this saintly, magnanimous way that alienates the words from their weight.
Now that I've got that out of my system, let me say that if there's anyone reading that likes Stars, you might want to check out this three-song EP. It's sort of the rock equivalent to the Stars techno-pop line. It's concentrated, sincere, positivity with a melodramatic sense of the melancholy. If you don't wince like I do at keening lines like "Let's have more faith in love," you could do worse. But whatever you do, do not pay any heed to Kerrang's description of the group as "Slint with the edges smoothed away" or "a sober Mogwai." This is the kind of rash reviewing tactics I refuse to take part in. Musically, you could talk about The Cliffhanger's sound using these and any number of somber, elegiac groups making music to sway to with your hands on your heart. It's very lush, pastoral music that sweeps and swoops, but the dumb vocals are too central to ignore.
Listening to this stuff, I'm reminded of that band in Laurel Canyon that make such palatably saccharine nonsense that you could almost convince yourself you're a cynical fuck for not appreciating it. I don't think that all music has to be dark and vague to be viably artistic, but of course there’s a fine line, and The Collision does a smashing job of ignoring it completely. Maybe that's the new rebellion. I don't really think so. And whether Cliffhanger is from a small town or not, this recording fairly reeks of modern rock radio ambitions. If I'm wrong, may god strike me down this moment. Maybe I just need more faith in love and the purer pop sentiment of yesteryear. All in all, this is pap to remind you why people become cynical about pop music in the first place.
1. Hit the Horizontal
2. Love is a Computer That Works
3. The Sublime
More about: The Cliffhanger
