Set Yourself On FireE

The Artist

Stars are a Montreal-based indie pop band formed in Toronto in the late 1990s, built around the dual-vocal chemistry of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan alongside Chris Seligman, Evan Cranley, and drummer Pat McGee. They emerged from the fertile Canadian indie scene tied to the Broken Social Scene collective, sharing members and a maximalist, chamber-pop sensibility with peers like Metric and Feist. Their sound blends lush orchestral pop, new wave synths, and literate, emotionally raw lyrics, often structured as he-said/she-said duets about love's collapse. Set Yourself On Fire, their third album, is widely considered their creative and commercial breakthrough, arriving at a moment when Canadian indie was exploding onto the international stage.

The Album

Released in September 2004 on Arts & Crafts in Canada (and later reissued internationally in 2005), Set Yourself On Fire was recorded largely in Montreal with the band self-producing alongside longtime collaborator Tom McFall. The record leans harder into orchestration than its predecessors, layering strings, horns, and analog synths under Campbell and Millan's intertwined vocals. It arrived as the Broken Social Scene extended universe was cresting, and its mix of political undercurrent and intimate heartbreak captured a specific post-9/11 anxiety filtered through romantic melodrama. Thematically, the album fixates on the small violences of love, memory, and mortality, treating every breakup and news headline with equal emotional weight.

Listen For

The spoken-word opening. "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" begins with a monologue over swelling strings before the song proper kicks in, setting the album's cinematic tone right away.

Dual-vocal architecture. Notice how Campbell and Millan trade perspectives across "The Big Fight" and "One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead)", turning arguments into duets.

Shoegaze drift on "Ageless Beauty". Listen for the wall of guitars and reverb-drenched production that pushes the track closer to My Bloody Valentine territory than twee pop.

Uncomfortable lyrical honesty. "The First Five Times" catalogs a relationship's physical milestones with startling specificity, a lyric that fans still single out as either brave or too much.

Political undercurrent surfacing late. "He Lied About Death" and "Celebration Guns" pivot from personal heartbreak to war-era anger, reframing the album's emotional stakes in its back half.