Anyone that knows me a bit knows that I have a profound love for music. It is one of the most powerful forces around us making us laugh as much as cry. It speaks to everyone, brings us togheter and yet, it's experienced on a very personal and unique level. This is my attempt, over then next year, to share with you every week my love for this art and to pay tribute to those who create it for us every day.
If you play Stars in a crowded room, I guarantee you that before the 2nd song is over, someone will be asking who they are. By the 6th song, you'll have converted half of the room.
A Canadian band now living in Montreal, Stars has been on my Iphone for a few years now. Having limited space, I tend to clean my list often, but Stars is one of those bands that you just can't delete.
Stars has the uncanny ability to make every song unique (making it difficult for me to choose 2 songs here). From gentle melodies to more heavy pop beats, the subjects of the songs speak to everyone on a personal level and I personally like that. Both male and female vocals have a haunting effect that make the songs delightful to the ears. And for those of you less lyrics oriented, the beats will make you unconsciously move a body part or two.
Stars is our way of asking forgiveness to the rest of the world for Justin Beiber. We promise we won't do it again.
Had a hard time deciding who would be my first so to speak so I decided to start this project by featuring what I consider one of the greatest female voices of all time. Not many people know her name but we've all heard her more then once featured in TV commercials. But Angela is not just about selling cars or female razors, when she sings, she moves mountains.
Singing to me is not just about hitting the right note as it is about hitting the right emotion. Some of the people I consider great singers don't have amazing voices but they can carry their souls over a sound system and in Angela's case, she can do both with grace.
Here is an exemple of what I'm talking about (I think it's important to note that this is live on Morning Becomes Eclectic (A radio show that features amazing artists) and she still sounds like this:
Most of us were introduced to her talent via Telepopmusik but Angela was already active within The Wild Colonials and as a solo artist. I never thought it possible but she actually covered the song "Love is stronger then death" by The The (more on that later), a very powerful song and made it sound even more awesome (awesome sounds to weak for this but it will have to do).
For those of you more into the TelepopMusik stuff, here is something recent from her and Duke B (one of the TelepopMusik guys) featuring some stuttering effect "a la" BT (again, more on him later).
In a world saturated with Auto-Tune female artists and publicity stunts to make money more then to make music, it's nice to see someone for whom music is a true calling and a sincere expression of the soul.
