Maybe I'm in a bad mood. I remember having a favorable impression of this band based on what I'd downloaded from indie sampler platter website Epitonic.com. "In Open Plains" from For Stars' last album, We are All Beautiful People (Future Farmer, 2001), actually made it onto a mix tape I made for a girl. So, considering, I was pleased when TMT editor Mr P included a promo copy of ...It Falls Apart in my bag of reviewables. Since my experience with For Stars is limited to a few songs and downloading a video of the recording sessions for "In Open Plains" (a popular cut, apparently) at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone studios, I hadn't previous had to make it through a whole album of their stuff.
Unfortunately, For Stars in album form is not what I expected. ...It Falls Apart is a mess of overproduction and features bland songwriting; the three strongest tracks are the ones with some semblance of catharsis (read: singer Carlos Forster wailing over a wall of feedback), or at least tempo, and one of these is the 10-minute epic "If It Falls Apart," which conveniently encapsulates everything done here. "It Doesn't Really Matter" and "In the End" are both decent, if syrupy, starry-eyed indie-pop, but the latter dies into "Shattered Glass," which is even more boring than the shitty Hayden Christensen movie of the same name. Then we've got the instrumental (or quasi-instrumental, I can't really tell) "Reminds You," the aforementioned titular epic, and another forgettable guitar ballad to close out the album. Even if it doesn't really sound like Radiohead, plenty of bands, like Death Cab for Cutie, the Walkmen, and June Panic all do it just a bit better.
1. I Should Have Told You
2. Calm Down Baby.
3. It Doesn't Really Matter
4. In the End.
5. Shattered Glass
6. Reminds You.
7. If It Falls Apart,
8. Lend Out Your Love 1. I Should Have Told You
2. Calm Down Baby.
3. It Doesn't Really Matter
4. In the End.
5. Shattered Glass
6. Reminds You.
7. If It Falls Apart,
8. Lend Out Your Love
More about: For Stars
