The Five Ghosts compromises Stars’ trademark lyrical theatrics with omnipresent synths, creating what is, at best, a nonchalant melodrama, and, at worst, a trite mess. Everyone takes themselves too seriously sometimes, and, when that self-indulgence does strike, it's not even a matter of staying restrained or self-aware—Stars thrive when they're neither. It's a matter of sounding honest and memorable. Also, what’s the point of having Amy Milan in your band if you turn her into a chipmunk?
4/10
Released June 21, 2010 on Vagrant
Follows...the unseamlessly political 2007 "In Our Bedroom After the War"
Listen instead to...their 2004 masterpiece "Set Yourself on Fire"
When there's nothing left to burn...you have to set yourself on fire.
Highlights:
I Died So I Could Haunt You: Oh yeah, and most of the album is about death.
Wasted Daylight: A nicely complex spin on their usual healthy/unhealthy relationship theme.
Changes: My favorite track here, and the most straightforward.
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