Stars

Do You Trust Your Friends?

[1.5/5]

Can you name a remix in the history of music that was better than the original? Didn’t think so. Outside of dance music-which is basically a scam anyway-remix albums are like watching yourself jerk off in the mirror: Interesting in theory, but keep the end product to yourself. On Do You Trust Your Friends?, Stars have enlisted the likes of Metric, Junior Boys, the Stills and more to put the knife to their pretty little orchestral pop. And yet there’s almost nothing that improves upon their beloved 2004 release Set Yourself On Fire (although the Dears do great work on the two-part "What I’m Trying To Say," an imaginative and propulsive blast). Ultimately, remixing works best with beat-heavy tracks or songs draped with wide-open chords like low-hanging fruit-not so for the intimate, bed-sit mess-about that Stars are known for. If it ain’t broke… (ARTS & CRAFTS) Luke O’Neil