I have been listening to the Stars new album, “In our Bedroom after the War”, and may I say, I am impressed. I postponed buying this album for an extremely long period of time, as every review I had read had suggested that the album did not even come close to matching the greatness of their 2004 realest, and Juno winning album “Heart”, or the 2005 release, and Juno winning album “Set Yourself On Fire”. “Heart” explored the complex emotions, which are released during the early stages of new love; yet it did not implode into self-congratulatory pop silliness. Instead it approached the subject from the vantage of the modern twenty something suburbanite. With catchy riffs and surprisingly insightful lyrics, Stars captured a moment all too often fleeting. “Set Yourself on Fire” took a dramatic turn, as it faced the realities of the sudden, painful end of the bliss that encapsulated “Heart”. “Fire” pursued all of the darkness, despair and insecurity that accompany the end of a relationship. Like a protest, “Fire” pulled no punches nor mediated the emotion that could not be contained. Combine the mixture of electronic effects, full orchestra and acoustic guitar, with lyrics are poignant as any sonnet, “Fire” resonated. “Bedroom” begins where “Fire” left off, as the emotions of acceptance, forgiveness, and self-realization begin to underscore the pain of sudden cessation. “Bedroom” represents a “post struggle cuddle”. It is, without a doubt my “album of the year”. I can’t stop listening to it.
Although I have been deathly ill this whole weekend, cough cough, when I found out that the single adults of Lethbridge were being treated with a special evening with Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quarm of the Twelve Apostles, I was estatic. Although I may have looked like death, and perhaps even smelt a little like death, I managed to make it too the fireside (barely) on time.
Elder Scott was a pleasure to listen too, as he imparted pearls about the everlasting topic of dating, a topic that usually has run its course in my ears, but which yet found life today. Elder Scott related several interesting annicdotes reguarding his own dating experiences, some of which involved embarisment, and others which involved heartache. He was able to integrate the realities of this modern time with the experiences which he had some time ago, and do it in a manner which brought the spirit. It was a wonderful experience.
Life can be grand, even when under the weather. :)
