Review Summary: A fine major label debut that is somewhat uneven by design but still stellar in some places.
"The Stars of Track and Field" is a song by
Belle and Sebastian, the first song off their 1997 breakthrough "If You're Feeling Sinister", and it's sure as hell a quiet one: crooning, overtly-British vocals swaying over a quietly plucked acoustic guitar. Frankly, while quiet and subtle, "The Stars of Track and Field" is the perfect summary for the album, quiet yet never boring, beautiful and slightly sad.
You wouldn't expect that a band who borrowed (stole) this particular song name and used it as a band name to have a particularly full sound, or even a mildly loud one at that. But this Canadian indie-pop trio have, in fact, managed to keep their style different, though not un-recognizable, from the Belle and Sebastian song. The band take hits from the electronica gong on mostly all of their songs, and mix it with a lush blend of proud n' loud indie rock.
This is the band's second album and their first major label release. Stars of Track and Field have a defining sound that, as mentioned before, mixes subtle electronica and dance music with a louder, more musical indie rock side. Both of these qualities shine through on basically every song (with perhaps the exception of "Lullaby for a G.I.", which maintains a more ambient side throughout), and are sprinkled evenly so that neither side comes out too strong and takes over the other. Songs like "Real Time" and "U.S. Mile 5" are beautifully composed indie rock songs that move at a slow pace, with lush orchestrations of conventional guitar, bass and drums, but also incorporate twitchy electronic instruments and noises throughout, whether they be separated from the rock instruments or subtly blended in, giving their somewhat formulaic indie rock more edge and overall interest. Brain and brawns meld perfectly on songs like "Exit the Recital" and "Centuries", which balance their elements with astonishing foresight, but the most effective display here is "Say Hello", which gives the more conventional side of the band to shine through beautifully and rhythmically, which giving pinches of the band's more computerized side throughout. Easily the best song on the album.
The main problem here is that the album is pretty repetitive, which isn't the greatest thing since the first half of the album lacks the energy, wonderful songwriting, and melodic balance that the second half has to offer. The first four songs, "Centuries", "Movies of Antarctica", "With You" and "Lullaby for G.I." are by no means bad, but take a long time to get moving and after the ambience of the programming is finished to make way for the more full music, the listener has a very overwhelming sense of boredom with the song. Clearly this could have been avoided with a very simple but effective decision to mix the songs around a bit, seeing as the second half is near perfect. But rather, this is where the album loses most of it's points; not necessarily in the overall repetitiveness, but in the individual repetitiveness of it's halves, even though the second half is as cute as a button.
But in the end, you're guaranteed to be returning to at least three of these songs at quite profound rates, which only ease you into listening to the whole album more. Songs like "Real Time", "Arithmatik", "Say Hello" and "Exit the Recital" are all very catchy numbers, each with a varying amount of stellar compositions and more simple rhythms, resulting in equally fine songs. So all in all, despite a snoozer of a first half, Centuries Before Love and War ends up as a very good listen, and is a recommended listen to those familiar with modern indie rock. Good stuff.
