Misplaced Pages

Star of Love

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nikthestunned (talk | contribs) at 20:04, 19 July 2011 (Shuffle). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:04, 19 July 2011 by Nikthestunned (talk | contribs) (Shuffle)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Untitled

Star of Love is the debut studio album by English/Spanish electronic artists Crystal Fighters. The album was released on October 4, 2010 through Zirkulo records.

The album explores the themes in singer Laure's grandfather's writings. Themes include the unfathomable mystery of the universe, the turbulent journey towards being at peace with death, the triumph of love, and the omnipotence of the sun. Star Of Love is actually an backronym of SOL, the Spanish word for “sun”. Each song tells a story, both sonically and aurally, and each story has its cryptic connections with the dark and tormented world of the original opera.

The album was produced by Crystal Fighters, and mixed by Charlie Hugall, producer for Florence & The Machine; Jack Penate; Alan O'Connell (aka Alalal); Mark Ronson; Paul Epworth; and Crystal Fighters themselves. Champion Sound was produced by Luke Smith, of English indie rock band Foals; and Crystal Fighters.

For UK record shop Rough Trade, the band made a special Spanish Pop mixtape that was given away free with the album.

The album artwork was commissioned to artist John Stark to create a bespoke oil painting.

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Solar System"3:58
2."Xtatic Truth"3:38
3."I Do This Everyday"3:45
4."Champion Sound"3:25
5."Plage"3:50
6."In the Summer"3:56
7."At Home"5:06
8."I Love London"2:47
9."Swallow"4:31
10."With You"4:23
11."Follow"3:16
Total length:42:35

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
BBC MusicPositive
The Brag
Drowned In Sound
The Fly
Metro
MusicOMH
NMENegative
The Skinny
Subba-Cultcha
Virgin Media

Star of Love received widely varying reviews. Caitlin Welsh of The Brag was particularly critical, stating that in "‘I Love London’, they ape M.I.A.’s Shoreditch patois over four-to-the-floor beats that are oppressive in their attempts to be visceral, and a robot-fart bass synth that sounds like your speakers aren’t hooked up properly. There’s no room in the mix, no space between noises to thrash and dance – it’s going for catchy, edgy hard-dance, and it sounds like a Skitzmix" as well as finding the album on the whole "Exhaustingly dull". Alex Hoban of NME was equally critical, saying that "With Delorean doing the same thing right now so much better, favouring Crystal Fighters would be like being handed an LCD Soundsystem record and chucking it to listen to Hadouken!."
Opposed to this, Josh Holliday of Virgin Media effusively praised the bands first outing, stating that "Symbiotic throughout, Star Of Love is an eclectic barrage of contrasting, and often cacophonously clashing genre combinations. Yet whilst perhaps their most triumphant moment, the naively wondrous ‘Plage’ purveys a concrete sense of stylistic cohesion, it’s this constant flittering and fidgeting between reality and surrealism, fact and fiction, British and Basque that propels Crystal Fighters into mythical realms, as they bathe in ticker tape at the heart of a crystal maze only they can conquer." and awarding it a rare perfect score. Stephen Jones, of the Metro backs this up, saying that "On paper, Crystal Fighters’ self-produced ‘fast dance music’, melding Basque folk instruments and thumping electro punk pop with lyrics from singer Laure’s grandfather’s addled writings, sounds like a disaster. In reality it works."

References

  1. ^ McMahon, James (2010-10-05). "Crystal Fighters  — Star of Love / Reviews // BBC". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  2. "Fact Mag album release announcement". FACT. The Vinyl Factory. 2010-07-22. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  3. "Rough Trade album origins info". Rough Trade date=2010-10-04. Retrieved 2011-05-25. {{cite web}}: Missing pipe in: |work= (help)
  4. "Drowned in Sound release info". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  5. Lucas, Gavin (2010-10-27). "Interview with John Stark - album cover painter". Creative Review. Centaur Media. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  6. ^ Welsh, Caitlin (2011-02-07). "The Brag review". The Brag. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  7. Perry, Tom (2010-09-28). "Crystal Fighters  — Star of Love / Releases // Drowned In Sound". Drowned In Sound. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  8. Jones, Molly (2010-09-10). "The Fly review". The Fly. MAMA Group. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  9. ^ Jones, Stephen (2010-09-17). "Crystal Fighters  — Star of Love / Reviews // Metro". Metro. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  10. Raymond, Max (2010-09-13). "Crystal Fighters  — Star of Love // MusicOmh". MusicOMH. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  11. ^ Hoban, Alex (2010-09-24). "Crystal Fighters  — Star of Love / Reviews // NME". nme.com. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  12. Kealy, Oisín (2010-08-30). "The Skinny review". The Skinny. Radge Media Ltd. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  13. Hiorns, Benjamin. "Subba-Cultcha review". Subba-Cultcha. Spyre Media. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  14. ^ Holliday, Josh (2010-08-20). "Virgin review". Virgin Media. Virgin Group. Retrieved 2011-05-25.

External links

Categories: