This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Compared to their last album — the delightful children’s tale The Story of Harmelodia, which came packaged in its own teeny, illustrated hardcover book — The Rheostatics’ latest effort Night of the Shooting Stars marks a return to more adult-oriented, down-to-earth fare.
Of course, when it comes to these long-serving eclectic Canadian indie-popsters, everything is relative. On the one hand, yeah, plenty of these cuts find the ’statics plugging the guitars back in and delivering the sort of witty, catchy, lightly crunching pop-rock gems — with titles like Mumbletypeg, Superdifficult and Junction Foil Ball — that have long been their stock in trade. On the other hand, nobody who writes songs called These Days are Good for the Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance and Satan is the Whistler (and manages to spike them with enough hooks for a slaughterhouse) can ever be accused of being too serious.
