//Write-up by Austin Price

Stars reminds of nothing so much as a cuddlier Metric, none of those barbs (though there are a few thorns you might not notice until you’re hugging ‘em). And not just because they’re Canadian or because Amy Millan’s vocal styling ain’t too far removed from Emily Haines’ (if that was the case I’d be drawing comparisons to the B-52s, as well, given Torquil Campbell’s plastic, Technicolor vocals). They’re both bands that favor a dreamy, sweeping sound and who have an unhidden love of synthesizers. Where Metric plays with the darker side of things, though, and favors a kind of electrical sexuality, Stars goes for something sweeter, like an idealized kind of love, and damn if it’s not one that a young audience responds to.

Witness nothing else but Stars’ performance at Webster Hall this last Saturday, when they packed those halls – and the balconies, and the bar stools in the back – to the gills. Aren’t too many other bands that can get a whole building of kids to obey when told to “throw their hands up if they ever feel afraid;” even fewer who can make songs so full of lyrics about heartbreak and abandonment into the kind of glittery dream-pop that all the glamorous and optimistic millennials what make-up New York’s music scene can’t seem to miss out on.

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