Anyone who’s read here long knows about my love for Stars, producers of my #4 album from 2005 and one of my favorite songs of all-time.
Given that I was very excited at the chance to hear the new record from Memphis, Torquil Campbell’s collaboration with Chris Dumont. Though it’s been out for a several months in Canada, A Little Place in the Wilderness can still only be had by import in our poor, unenlightened nation.
I tried to write a review that didn’t fall into the trap of simply comparing it to Stars, but the elephant in the room wouldn’t stop pestering me. So I’m going to give into the cliche and apologize now for not being more creative, with the small caveat that it’s their own fault for casting such a long and impressive shadow.
First things first: my favorite Stars songs (Elevator Love Letter, Calendar Girl, Ageless Beauty, Your Ex-Lover is Dead) bear a striking similarity – they are all sung primarily or completely by Amy Millan. This shouldn’t be surprising, since she has one of the most exhilarating voices on the planet. Still, I’ve often felt that this imbalance was not necessarily reflective of the mutually supportive strengths of the band. i.e. – she may have the pipes, but he is the creator of the landscapes on which she can work. A comparison of their solo works seems to bear this out. Her Honey From the Tombs was pleasant enough but was simply too flat to do her voice full justice.
On the other hand, A Little Place in the Wilderness, while not living up to the heights of the past two Stars records, has a lot to recommend it. Most basically, it continues the trend of Campbell playing songs that would make Morrissey proud. In fact, part of me can’t help but wish that the best songs here had simply found their way onto the next Stars record, where Millan’s voice could have worked its magic and made them even better.
Still, this is not simply a Stars record sans Ms. Millan. It is more diverse in sound, with less of a glittery sheen as synths are toned down and they make some room for the music to relax. Where Stars songs glide, Memphis songs tend to bounce. Moreover, emotions run more free and less is at stake; heartbreak is not entirely removed, but it is quite so engulfing a presence. Arrangements and themes are subtle and (for the most part) deftly handled.
There are missteps. Two of the tracks that sound the least like they could end up on a Stars album (the jazzy-pop of “Incredibly Drunk on Whiskey” and the atmospheric spoken-word “A Ghost Story”) are among my least favorite. The former because it overstays its welcome by a couple minutes, moving from bouncy to jarring. The latter simply because what is presumably meant to sound sinister only manages to produce dissonance and boredom.
At their best, though, Memphis buck the looming presence of Campbell’s other band and produce jangly chamber pop with attitude. As on these tracks:
I’ll Do Whatever You WantIn the Cinema Alone
The horns which drive “I’ll Do Whatever You Want” are about as catchy as anything I’ve heard this year. And the final minute of “In the Cinema Alone” is an almost perfect marriage of voice, strings, and horns.
Other tracks well worth a listen include the understated and elegant title track, the atmospheric “Time Away” and the loose instrumental “Swallows and Amazons.”
A final thought. This record is something of a mirror image of Ys (which I discussed yesterday). That album has received effusive praise which I perfectly understand but can’t really get behind. A Little Place in the Wilderness, on the other hand, has been the victim of a number of scathing reviews (from Stylus, for example), which make a lot of points I can’t really argue with. It’s not the most groundbreaking work and does suffer from a lack of clear purpose.
That said, I’m enjoying it and will almost certainly continue to do so long after I’ve thrown in the towel on Ys. The world may already contain a lot of pleasant Smiths-influenced pop music, but that’s certainly no reason to be sad about another strong entry into the field.