Much like the Canadian music industry as a whole, Montreal pop band, Stars, suffer from being in a perpetual state of misdirection and artistic uncertainty. Easily good enough to find themselves at center stage of a world renowned movement, they seem nonetheless determined to sabotage themselves every step of the way. Case in point; In our Bedroom After the War, which like its predecessor Set Yourself on Fire, ends up falling on its face due to a mixed bag of songwriting blunders caused by, what I can only assume to be, that collective death trap, the band democracy.

You see, any band is like (and excuse me for veering off into yet another 80's cartoon reverie here) Voltron. Made up of members with varying talents, a band can only really achieve optimum musical power and destroy the enemy when they realize their shortcomings, rally to a singular cause, and form a giant frickin' shape shifting mecha-robot. If one member falters, the whole thing falls apart. And so it is with Stars, a band who, when it assembles the team, can take you to such sonic heights that you're surprised your nose isn't bleeding, but who more often than not allow themselves to fall prey to conflicts of artistic interest.

Starting out strong enough, IOBATW digs right into what makes Stars great. Classy girl/boy vocals made extra sweet by catchy as all hell melodies and a sublime and crisp production style. Indeed, by the time the album's third track, the Smiths-tastic "Take me to the Riot", floats through your headphones you'll start to get just a little excited about the prospects of their being another 8 tracks to devour. Could it be possible that Stars might even have the chops to surpass "Ageless Beauty", arguably the standout from Set Yourself on Fire? Sadly, the answer comes back an ear shattering no, as Amy Millian and co. take a the back bench to Torquil Campbell, whose chuckle inducing piano man ballads fall short of channeling the theatrical musings of Jim Steinman, and sound more like The Barenaked Ladies covering Billy Joel. Essentially, any momentum that the album generated is lost to a host of ham-fisted musical theatrics and overblown lyrics until by the end you're left kind of wondering what happened to the best band that never was. It's unfortunate, but if the unevenness of IOBATW is any indication of things to come, it probably won't be long before Stars follows their Toronto counterpart, Broken Social Scene, and leaves center stage altogether.

This album isn't in stores until September 25th but you can download a special advance copy from emusic. No new video yet either, but here's "Ageless Beauty" to remind you all of how good Stars can be.

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"Ageless Beauty"