Stars
In Our Bedroom After The War
Shiny


'In Our Bedroom After The War' is basically a bag of mixed lollies. Sure, there's the occasional black jelly bean and some people might not like those little lolly bananas, but overall the taste is sweet and once you start you just keep eating more and more. Album number four proves that Stars aren't running short on ideas anytime soon and they sound more comfortable and confident in the studio than ever.

Stars greatest weakness is their tendency to push their sweet pop towards sappy saccharine flavours. Barricade is too much like the nauseating sounds of Keane to be palatable. Occasionally, they manage to bring a song back from the verge of schmaltz, as on the title track, thanks to the growing instrumentation and a cool violin solo.

However Stars manage more hits than misses on 'In Our Bedroom....'. The Night Starts Here deserves to be an indie dance floor hit; a slow starting duet that develops into an anthemic electro rocker. The other striking duet is the lyrically heavy musings of the lonely hearts who respond to the personal ads (Personal). Their eclectic mix of influences works with variable success. Life 2: The Unhappy Ending is like gloriously miserable ode to Morrissey (both in lyric and melody), The Ghosts Of Genova Heights stinks of Scissor Sisters, Midnight Coward leans towards the Postal Service while My Favourite Book is an unexpected pop take on RnB.

Although the cute voice of Amy Millan may sing "sweetness never suits me" (Midnight Coward), I completely disagree. 'In Our Bedroom After The War' is a sweet, and in the most part, terribly likeable album.

Scott Berry