Welcome to the first great record of 2001: Nightsongs, a collection of unabashedly beautiful synth pop from Stars, a quartet from Canada by way of New York. At the band's core are best friends Torquil Campbell (languid vocals, occasional keyboards) and Chris Seligman (urbane beats, guitar, horns, keyboards), who grew up together in Toronto. They never really shared the same musical tastes until Chris took mushrooms one night and, legend has it, wandered around the streets of Toronto "listening to the music of the universe." The music of the universe turned out to sound a lot like the Smiths.The Smiths are the duo's favorite band, but on their first full-length they pay homage to other '80s pop groups: New Order, the Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout, even De La Soul. "De La Soul is maybe the best band in the world right now of any kind," Torquil enthuses over the phone from his home in Montreal. "Everything they do is completely, completely incredible."

Torquil writes the lyrics to Chris' music, and he's a storyteller, though his stories don't jump through conventional narrative hoops; instead, he evokes a series of images and lets the listener fill in the gaps. With the voice of an aesthete (think Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys), Torquil tells modern sagas of seduction, loneliness, and betrayal.

Nightsongs contains a dozen songs -- including one Smiths cover -- loosely connected in sound and mood: songs to listen to at night. There are two bonus tracks, but we're not counting them here. Here, we're just talking about 12 songs -- 12 stories -- one for each hour between sunset and sunrise.

[snip]
10 p.m.: "This Charming Man"

An hour of delight. Morrissey and Marr's whimsical masterpiece, an allegory of sexual liberation, slowed down with the hint of a dancehall beat. According to Torquil, "the second best song ever" (he awards first place to "Tracks of My Tears," but doesn't think his voice is up to it). Contains the wonderful refrain "I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear" -- which brings us to Torquil's walk-on part in Sex and the City. He was on episode 34, the one that featured Alanis Morissette, and his only line was to ask Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) if she's wearing pleather. "I don't even know what that means," Torquil says. "But everybody thought it was funny so I said it. They paid me $900, and I got out of the way."
[end snip]

• Related item: Stars mention The Smiths in interview - January 2, 2001