Starz (Starz album)
Starz is the debut studio album by the American hard rock band Starz. The album was released on June 21, 1976 on Capitol Records and produced by Jack Douglas (best known for his work with the American hard rock band Aerosmith).
| Starz | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 21, 1976 | |||
| Recorded | 1976 | |||
| Studio | Record Plant, New York City | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, arena rock, power pop | |||
| Length | 39:11 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Jack Douglas | |||
| Starz chronology | ||||
| ||||
The song "Pull the Plug" caused some controversy, because it is about a man disconnecting his comatose wife's life support.
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10[2] |
AllMusic's Rob Theakston described Starz as "a simple, catchy, riff-driven album from start to finish", which failed in promoting the band to the level of arena rock stars like Aerosmith and Kiss; he judged the album "a mediocre debut, to be sure, and definitely not the release for casual fans to introduce themselves to the group."[1] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff commented on the lack of success of Starz, writing that it "was perceived as a happy collection of harmless, corporate-vetted, summertime rock 'n' roll, marketed heavily and unfairly as state-of-the-art American hard rock", but concluded that the album aged quite well and is a good representation of "rock 'n' roll's friendlier, more relaxed, more optimistic eras."[2]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Detroit Girls" | Richie Ranno, Michael Lee Smith, Piet Sweval | 4:05 |
| 2. | "Live Wire" | Ranno, Smith, Sweval | 3:23 |
| 3. | "Tear It Down" | Sweval | 3:13 |
| 4. | "Boys in Action" | Ranno, Smith, Sweval, Brendan Harkin | 5:37 |
| 5. | "(She's Just a) Fallen Angel" | Ranno, Smith, Sweval, Harkin, Sean Delaney, Joe X. Dube | 3:35 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Monkey Business" | Harkin, Smith, Sweval, Delaney | 2:52 |
| 7. | "Night Crawler" | Harkin, Ranno, Smith | 4:32 |
| 8. | "Over and Over" | Smith | 3:17 |
| 9. | "Pull the Plug" | Harkin, Ranno, Smith | 4:43 |
| 10. | "Now I Can" | Harkin, Ranno, Smith | 4:11 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Sweet Jeremiah" (demo version) | Sweval | 3:15 |
| 12. | "Fallen Angel" (demo version) | 3:25 | |
| 13. | "Detroit Girls" (demo version) | 4:02 | |
| 14. | "Live Wire" (demo version) | 3:57 |
Personnel
- Starz
- Michael Lee Smith – vocals
- Richie Ranno – guitar
- Brendan Harkin – guitar
- Pieter "Pete" Sweval – bass
- Joe X. Dube (aka Jeff Grob) – drums
- Additional musicians
- Gary Coleman – additional percussion
- Production
- Jack Douglas – producer
- John Jansen, Jay Messina – engineers
- Sam Ginsberg – assistant engineer
References
- Theakston, Rob. "Starz Starz review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
- Popoff, Martin (October 2003). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 253. ISBN 978-1894959025.