Albums

The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart

Bill Cummings 28/02/2004

Rating: 4/5

The Stills a four piece from Montreal take their influences from the British indie scene of the eighties, hence the ghosts of bands like the Cure, and My Bloody Valentine haunt these melancholic waves of rock.

First track "Lola stars and stripes" weaves its way around your heart and into your head with its shimmering guitars and passionate vocals. Elsewhere the hyme to nostalgia that is "Changes are no good" with its neat rhythms and building and emotive beauty is impressive. Also "Love and Death" is insanely catchy its whirring eighties rhythm pattern burns its way into your head with its plantative verses, that peak on the chorus line of "I'm just so bored of wasting my time/ Love and Death are always on my mind." The standout moment comes in the shape of "Still in Love Song" a shuttering piece of dreamy post rock that's haunting vocals and doomed heart bring to mind everyone from the Cure and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Unfortunately some tracks like "Of Montreal" and "Ready For it”, with their over reliance on clichéd guitar shapes can make this album a sound a tad monotonous. But Overall like Interpol and Stellstarr* before them The Stills create beautifully heartbreaking music out of the debris of the past, injecting their sometimes overly musical style with a subtlety of emotion that grows upon the listener with each listen. The title sums up the album really The Stills unlike the Neil Young song use the logic of their musicianship to break your heart.