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. The first track, entitled "Lola Stars and Stripes", weaves its way around your heart and into your head with its shimmering guitars and passionate vocals. The ode to nostalgia that is "Changes Are No Good", with its neat rhythms and building and emotive beauty, is truly impressive. Also "Love and Death" is insanely catchy; its wirring eighties rhthmic pattern burns its way into your head with 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 post rock whose haunting vocals and doomed heart bring to mind everyone from the Cure to the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Unfortunately, some of the tracks, like "Of Montreal" and "Ready For it", with their over relaince on cliched guitar shapes, can make this album 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 subtle emotion that grows upon the listener with each listen. The title summs up the album really; The Stills, unlike Neil Young, use not love but the logic of their muscianship to break your heart.

-Bill Cummings