“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars

"Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" opens Set Yourself on Fire, the 2004 album by Canada's Stars, and it starts with the voice of Douglas Campbell, father of singer Torquil Campbell, speaking the line that gives the record its name. Torquil wrote it with Amy Millan, Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman, and it went on to become the band's sixth single, a baroque-pop swoon with a title like a slammed door. Pitchfork later ranked it 298th among the best songs of the 2000s.

The video puts the band flat on their backs on outdoor ice, playing their instruments. Television and film kept finding it too: the Season 5 finale of Degrassi: The Next Generation, So You Think You Can Dance on both sides of the border, the Italian film Caos Calmo and the closing scene of Tanner Hall.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.