Learn to Sing Like a Star

Learn to Sing Like a Star is Kristin Hersh's seventh solo album and was released in the US on Yep Roc Records on the 23 January 2007 and on 4AD for the rest of the world on the 29 January. The album was produced by Kristin herself and mixed in Nashville by two-time Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker. It features her Throwing Muses bandmate David Narcizo on drums and with strings by the McCarricks. The album peaked at #27 on the US's Billboard Top Heatseekers Album Chart.

Learn to Sing Like a Star
Studio album by Kristin Hersh
Released	January 23, 2007
Recorded	June–October 2006
Studio	Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, Rhode Island[1]
Genre	Indie rock[1]
Length	41:20
Label	4AD, Yep Roc Records
Producer	Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh chronology
The Grotto (2003) Learn to Sing Like a Star (2007) Cats and Mice (2010)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Austin Chronicle	[3]
MusicOMH	[4]
Pitchfork	6.2/10[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Slant Magazine	[7]

Touring

In early 2007 Hersh toured throughout Europe and the US to promote the album, first solo in a series of instore performances and then with her 50 Foot Wave bandmates Bernard Georges and Rob Ahlers as well as The McCarricks.

Critical reception

Learn to Sing Like a Star was met with "generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 74, based on 20 reviews.^[2] Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 75 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 9 reviews.^[8]

Shawn Badgley of The Austin Chronicle said the album "is the full Hersh experience, encompassing as it does all of her back-catalog iterations, from the knife-throwing thrills of the Throwing Muses' precise power pop to the cutting melancholia of her Hips and Makers-era balladry. With help from Dave Narcizo on drums and Martin and Kimberlee McCarrick on cello and violin, Hersh handles everything else."^[3]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kristin Hersh.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"In Shock"	4:12
2.	"Nerve Endings"	3:35
3.	"Day Glow"	3:56
4.	"Christian Hearse"	0:29
5.	"Ice"	3:16
6.	"Under the Gun"	3:10
7.	"Piano 1"	1:43
8.	"Sugarbaby"	3:10
9.	"Peggy Lee"	3:15
10.	"Piano 2"	0:47
11.	"Vertigo"	3:59
12.	"Winter"	2:33
13.	"Wild Vanilla"	2:58
14.	"The Thin Man"	4:17

Personnel

Musicians Kristin Hersh – primary artist, producer Kimberlee McCarrick – violin David Narcizo – drums Martin McCarrick – cello

Production Joe Gastwirt – engineer Steve Rizzo – engineer Mike Paragone – mixing