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
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 21, 1976
Recorded1976
StudioRecord Plant, New York City
GenreHard rock, arena rock, power pop
Length39:11
LabelCapitol
ProducerJack Douglas
Starz chronology
Starz
(1976)
Violation
(1977)

The song "Pull the Plug" caused some controversy, because it is about a man disconnecting his comatose wife's life support.

Reception edit

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal7/10[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 edit

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Detroit Girls"Richie Ranno, Michael Lee Smith, Piet Sweval4:05
2."Live Wire"Ranno, Smith, Sweval3:23
3."Tear It Down"Sweval3:13
4."Boys in Action"Ranno, Smith, Sweval, Brendan Harkin5:37
5."(She's Just a) Fallen Angel"Ranno, Smith, Sweval, Harkin, Sean Delaney, Joe X. Dube3:35
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Monkey Business"Harkin, Smith, Sweval, Delaney2:52
7."Night Crawler"Harkin, Ranno, Smith4:32
8."Over and Over"Smith3:17
9."Pull the Plug"Harkin, Ranno, Smith4:43
10."Now I Can"Harkin, Ranno, Smith4:11
2004 CD edition bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
11."Sweet Jeremiah" (demo version)Sweval3:15
12."Fallen Angel" (demo version) 3:25
13."Detroit Girls" (demo version) 4:02
14."Live Wire" (demo version) 3:57

Personnel edit

Starz
  • Michael Lee Smith – vocals
  • Richie Ranno – guitar
  • Brendan Harkin – guitar
  • Pieter "Pete" Sweval – bass
  • Joe X. Dube (aka Jeff Grob) – drums
Additional musicians
Production

References edit

  1. ^ a b Theakston, Rob. "Starz Starz review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  2. ^ a b 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.

External links edit