Customer Reviews

Logic Will Break Your Heart

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The stills first audio release - Rememberese - Was a great begginer EP. Although it was 50% Still in Love Song, who doesn't want more of it? It's catchy riff by Oliver Crowe, the bass player, and true-to-life lyrics by Tim Fletcher, pounding drummer Dave Hamlin keeps this talented group together. The opening song, Lola Stars and Stripes, shows why they are such a great band. Oliver keeps his riffs simple, but great. Greg Pauquet, lead guitarest, plays only when nessecary, but when he does, it is with charm. Of Montreal, their home-town ballad, shows the best way to describe their music - bittersweet. Gender Bombs shows why they have two guitarests. Both talented, they blend together to sound wonderful - in a dark song.

If you haven't figuired it out, I am a huge stills fan, have have been since my dad played me Still in Love Song. This is great music by a bunch of great guys. I talk to them through e-mail, and they are great! Just today Oliver even sent me some Bass stuff for me to play :) I hope you give your ears a treat and buy this album.

The Stills are a great band with a sound that is similar to other NYC garage rock bands, but they still have their own sound. A little bit of New Wave, 80's and Rock BEAUTIFULLY meshed into this album. Rarely do i find a CD with more than 5 songs that i like. This album doesn't need any skipping, throw it on random and ENJOY! The best songs in my opinion, with the best songs first, are "Allison Krauss" (*****), and then "Still In Love", but very close to that is "Of Montreal", "Gender Bombs", "Lola Stars and Stripes", "Yesterday not Tomorrow" oh hell, the whole CD is good. In comparison to Interpol...the Stills vocals are better, and their backing music is on par with Interpol as well. I've caught them at a concert too, and boy, they are an act. If i had a straight jacket on in the concert, no doubt i would've busted through it, headbanging after the first song. Simply put, they are A GREAT BAND, and this great band is better than 90% of the bands that have a video on rotation on music channels.

First of all, to the reviewer who compared The Stills to The Shins: What? They aren't in any way similar enough to be compared except for the `The' in their names. The Shins are amazing in their own right, but moving on...

It's hard to believe that this is The Stills debut album. Most bands would be lucky to EVER have an album this good in their collection, but right off the bat? Damn. Logic Will Break Your Heart is one of those rare masterpieces of modern alternative rock that actually almost defines the genre. Some may think that Interpol has done it better or maybe they did it first, but to tell you the truth, I don't really know or care. The Stills deserve the credit for an astonishing, flawless album of their own without the comparisons.

Logic starts out with a bang. "Lola Stars and Stripes" comes on and knocks the indifferent stare right off your face with powerful cymbal-driven percussion and a guitar riff that sounds like climbing a really steep flight of stairs (Nice analogy, right? Hey, I never said I was an instrument buff). With timely and timeless lyrics that are equally apathetic as well as heartbreakingly honest, "Lola" manages to stray far enough away from a political commentary to actually say something genuine about humanity.

There is no doubt that "Lola" is a showstopper, but she never puts the rest of the album to shame. As many of the reviewers here have said, this is a no-skip album with thankfully no fillers. I hate fillers. "Gender Bombs" is the perfect song to be second; in some ways it rivals "Lola" as the best song on the album. It is my personal favorite; about 25 seconds in to the song, when the lead guitar kicks in, I'm instantly hooked. By the end, I find myself either muttering, `massive suiciiiiide...' or `the girl will school you' continuously until someone tells me to shut up or calls a suicide hotline...whatever comes first.

"Of Montreal" combines some of the musical elements of "Lola" and "Gender Bombs", but is a plaintive, intense song with heavy reliance on Tim Fletcher's anguished-sounding moans and cries. If you can't decide whether you love or hate his voice, this song might make the decision for you. "Allison Krausse" fades in quietly and then builds with a more distorted vocal and some killer guitar that meshes perfectly with Fletcher's brooding voice. Listen to "Animals & Insects" and the simple words `Oh my god' will somehow encompass every last feeling of inertia and nothingness you've ever felt.

The Stills have managed to channel apathy and angst into music that is not cliché or whiny. It remains hopeful instead of defeatist, multifaceted instead of one-dimensional, and enduring rather than tiresome after repeated listens. The Stills seem like they don't try to be profound, but it just happens accidentally. Or does it? Their highly divisive, drastically different second album, Without Feathers, questions that very notion. Stroke of genuis or the first signs of mental instability? I know what I think, but I'll let you be the judge on that one.

Anyway, Logic Will Break Your Heart is a good one. Trust me, whatever led you to this album, whether it was linked to another CD or someone recommended it, it happened for a good reason. You need to own this one.

This is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. The Stills have this uncanny knack for writing awesome hooks that get stuck in your head, and their relatively simple lyrics make it easy to sing along. These are beautiful uplifting melodies that cycle about in your musical memory that you'll find yourself humming throughout the day. The album starts off incredibly strong with brilliant anthems like "Lola Stars and Stripes" and "Gender Bombs", and continues on solidly ranging in tone from melancholy, to angry, to optimistic, several times even within the same song. Music really doesn't get much better than this.

Montreal's newest export, The Stills, proves with their debut album that you don't need to be noisy or extravagant in order to do the job. Their sound brings to mind influences from eighties bands such as Smiths/Morrisey, The Cure and New Order, with accents that could sound as borrowed from a Radiohead, a Travis, a Coldplay or a Doves album. Then they tone themselves down a bit, with a bare bones approach that makes the experience of listening to "Logic Will Break Your Heart" one that you wish to repeat over and over.

Since I first heard it, I haven't stopped playing the album and I am sure happy that there's works like theirs out there, keeping the good music of all ages alive and kicking. With a very crisp dual-guitar approach, with a classic rhythmic backbone consisting of bass and drums (and the timely spicing up with keys by drummer Dave Hamelin), their prog-post-punk sound supports the voice of Tim Fletcher, one who I wouldn't be surprised to see stand out like Coldplay's Chris Martin in a matter of a couple of years.

With The Stills, make no mistake: you are in the presence (if they don't throw their act down a toilet) of a band that will be huge. In fact, they already ARE huge with such a brilliant debut!

This album is full of amazing songs. Highlights: "Gender Bombs", "Lola Stars & Stripes", "Let's Roll", "Still in Love Song" and specially "Of Montreal". The lyrics are great, as well as the voice and guitar. But what really would blow your mind away is the rythm section. These guys treat every instrument as it deserves, bringing the bass and drums to the front more as leading instruments than supporting ones.
Yes, they do wear their influences on their sleeve (The Cure, The Smiths, Echo, Radiohead) and they do sound a little bit as Interpol (for me even better). But although their sound isn't groundbreaking or new, (let's face it - how many bands produce really new sounds each year?) The Stills have produced one of the most rewarding records of the 00's. If in a couple of years I keep enjoying "Logic Will Break Your Heart" as much as I do right now, it'll definitely enter my top 5 list of the best records ever!

The Stills set the bar high for themselves with their first full-length album, Logic Will Break Your Heart. Every song on it is amazing, and continues to be one of my favourite albums.

The Stills write very creative, smart rock songs that sound good no matter when you're listening. Most of the songs have a retro-rock feel, and the guitars play an extremely prevalent part in the album. Definite favourite tracks are "Lola Stars and Stripes," "Allison Krausse," "Of Montreal," and "Yesterday Never Tomorrows."

I recommend this album to everyone, but particularly those who are fans of The Walkmen, The Shins, and Interpol.

like many other people i first heard of The Stills from the one song they play on the radio, the Still In Love Song. then i went to their website, www.thestills.co.uk, and streamed the entire album. i loved it! you can tell if an album's really good if you can listen to it for three hours straight without stopping. and that's what i did, then two days later went out and bought the cd. the music is perfect for middle-of-the-day musing, late-night-dreaming, or even wake-me-up with the last song that reminds me of an ice cream truck. Logic Will Break Your Heart will do anything but break your heart.

I think the Stills are onto something here. A Canadian band mixing 80's new wave and punk ethos with a couple shots of Interpol, the Strokes and Longwave thrown in for good measure. Sure sounds good on paper. And, for the most part, it sounds good on the disc too. But I think this band has better material in them than this.

By way of example, no one song truly stands out to me on this disc. There are several songs that sound close to being great--"Still in love song", "Gender Bombs", "Changes are no good", "Of Montreal", etc. But they all seem to lack that certain chemistry that would push them over the top.

Which is not to say that the album isn't an enjoyable listen. I can listen to the album pretty much straight-through, and it is enough to keep my attention. The songs are well-written, the playing is competent, and the production is, as I mentioned above, a nice mix of styles that pushes all the right buttons for success today.

This being their debut album, they're accorded some leeway to throw in a few filler tracks, which they oblige. Some songs sound a bit too formulaic, as if they started with a good idea, then decided not to pursue the song any further. I'm thinking specifically of a couple of tracks towards the end of the album--'Allison krausse" and "Fevered". Overall, a number of the songs seem to have an air of unfinished business about them. Which is a large part of the reason I gave the album 3 rather than 4 stars.

Given a little more time and a chance to polish their sound, the Stills could become an outstanding band. I do believe they have an epic album or two in them, and I will be anxiously following their career to see what they can produce. But they are not a 5 star band yet. Let's see if they can get there.

Nothing really special, pretty generic sounding stuff. Only song that really catches my ear is "Still in Love Song".. looks like it was the only song recorded at a different studio, it definitely has a more progressive (maybe that the wrong word) sound to it, and the mix is way better too. The rest of the mixes have way too much ear bleeding top end, back off the treble guys, it doesn't make your music sound exciting. Most of the other songs are rather generic. I'd classify it in the not too many chords school of guitar rock /w uninteresting vocals.. same tempo, same chords, uninteresting lyrics.. don't even think to compare them to Radiohead, argh.. that person should be flogged.