STARZ

STARZ

STARZ - Should have been bigger

1. Detroit Girls
2. Live Wire
3. Tear It Down
4. Boys in Action
5. (She's Just a) Fallen Angel
6. Monkey Business
7. Night Crawler
8. Over and Over
9. Pull the Plug
10. Now I Can

There are a lot of bands who never became as big as they should; White Lion, Dokken, Angel ... and STARZ to name but a few.

STRAZ was a band that seemingly had it all. Managed by Sean Delaney (an employee of Bill Aucoin, the man behind the mighty KISS) who at the time had a roster which also included Piper, New England and Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster)!!

STARZ was on Capitol Records, the same label as The Beatles were on in the USA and this; their debut album was produced by Jack Douglas who had previously twiddled the knobs for Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper. Everything should have fallen into place. Of the four studio albums they made this is the pick of the bunch.

Opening up with ‘Detroit Girls’, Michael Lee Smith’s voice soon drags you in. ‘Live Wire’ is another rocker with a cracking guitar and drum intro, and ‘Tear It Down’ has a very 70`s style back beat to it. And a simple chorus that really works.

‘Boys In Action’ starts off with a really thumping riff that reminds me of Thin Lizzy; whilst ‘(She’s Just A) Fallen Angel’ dates back to the band’s previous incarnation: Fallen Angel. It’s a classic song with a great chorus and became their first single to reach the Billboard chart.

‘Night Crawler’ raised controversy back in the day, sung in the character of a killer, it provoked outrage when released. The next track ‘Over and Over’ comes across as a typical STARZ rocker; played at break neck speed yet still melodic and catchy.

There’s even more controversy though with ‘Pull the Plug’ where Michael Lee Smith sings to sweetly to his brain-dead girlfriend who is being kept alive on a life support machine. Not your typical subject matter, but it’s a great song with some great lyrics. Album closer ‘Now I Can’ is another cracking track with great guitars. Again
very reminiscent of the Thin Lizzy as far as the guitar work goes.

All up STARZ is not just a great debut album; it’s a great rock album. A classic which showed so much promise for the future. Other releases had stand out tracks, and more controversial subject matter but none were as consistent as this.

Essential.

Steve