Stars: Set Yourself On Fire (20th anniversary edition, red vinyl) [ARTS & CRAFTS]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary edition is remastered on opaque red vinyl in a die-cut jacket, with a poster, a flame tattoo and new liner notes from producer Tom McFall, limited to 3,000 copies. The album was nominated for the Juno for Alternative Album of the Year.

This edition

• Red vinyl
• 20th anniversary edition
• Limited to 3,000 copies
• Remastered
• Die-cut jacket
• Poster included
• Download card included
• Lyrics included

About the album

Some breakup records sulk. Set Yourself On Fire opens with a man announcing, over a gorgeous swell of strings, that he's run into his ex on the street, and then turns it into one of the most romantic things Canadian indie rock has produced. Stars, born in Toronto and part of the same circle as Broken Social Scene, put it out on Arts & Crafts in September 2004.

Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell trade and twine their vocals throughout, and Bulgarian composer Todor Kobakov writing the string arrangements. "Ageless Beauty" was the band's breakthrough hit in Canada, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" found a second life on The O.C. and So You Think You Can Dance, and "Calendar Girl," "The Big Fight" and "One More Night" carry the album's mix of heartbreak and hope. Tom McFall produced it with the band, giving the strings and synths room to bloom without ever burying the voices.

Critics loved it, with a Metacritic score of 81, and it has grown dearer every year to the people who soundtracked their twenties with it. Twenty years later, the ex-lover is still dead, and the song is still very much alive.

Also at Kops: more Stars on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Arts & Crafts (cat# AC009LPX), a reissue of the 2004 album.