“Outside the City“
from the album Young Galaxy
2007
iTunes
Former Stars touring guitarist Stephen Ramsay teamed up with girlfriend Catherine McCandless to form a new group that shines just as bright. Young Galaxy’s expansive set contains uplifting and philosophical musings in between echoing washes of synths for a lush, spacey dream-pop sound. The duo recruited members of the Dears, the Besnard Lakes, as well as Ramsay’s former traveling act to appear on their self-titled debut, out on Arts & Crafts earlier this year.
The Montreal-based project fills their disc with atmospheric and spiritual indie rock. Album opener “Swing Your Heartache” is a searching epic about breaking hearts and taking risks, while “Outside the City” is a hard-driving track that is reminiscent of labelmates Broken Social Scene. “Life’s not a rehearsal,” they remind listeners in the former, a sentiment that is one of the disc’s many universal truths.
While visiting his relatives in Ontario, 12-year-old Stephen Ramsay was offered the part of “Wheels,” a hard-luck protagonist of the pioneering children’s series Degrassi Junior High, as his mother’s cousin Yan Moore was the show’s creator. His parents turned it down despite his protests, because they didn’t want him moving across the country.
I think Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by the Stars is the 3rd or 4th most played song on my iTunes. I’m pretty happy about this new endeavor and that album art is gorgeous.
Can’t knock anything affiliated with Degrassi Junior High. I’m definitely diggin’ this.