‘70s hard-rock band goes power-pop

For those not paying attention to hard rock in the mid-70s, the terrific power pop of Starz’s third album seemed to appear out of thin air. For those who had listened to the band’s first two albums, Starz and Violation, the change in direction must have been a rude surprise. The band had always shown a keen sense of melody and even harmony vocals, but their riffing guitar jams and macho arena rhythms had been more apiece with Kiss and Aerosmith than the Raspberries. In retrospect, you can hear the change coming as the band’s lone Top 40 hit, “Cherry Baby,” opened Violation. The rhythm guitar had the richness of a 12-string, the lead vocal was softened slightly, and the chorus had the hook of an Andy Kim record. The remainder of the album, save the prog-folk “Is That a Street Light or the Moon,” fit more with the hard rock of the debut, but the dream of commercial success was clearly planted.

For their third album, the band produced itself and chased the pop sound that had garnered brief chart success. From the opening drumbeats of “Hold on to the Night,” the melodic twin guitar intro and the mid-tempo major key melody were a new direction that surely caused existing fans to blanch. Yet, anyone who was grooving to Dwight Twilley would have warmed quickly to Starz’ new sound, with the remainder of the album’s first side paying more dividends as the bands sounds like Bram Tchaikovsky, 20/20 and the Beat. Michael Lee Smith sings lovelorn lyrics without the macho strut of the band’s earlier pop-metal, though the power ballad “Third Time’s the Charm” would work well in a set with Poison’s “Every Rose Has its Thorn,” and the album closing “Johnny All Alone” has the length of an arena showcase.

The guitars offer up memorable hooks, and the band’s harmonizing works even better here than it had on their earlier albums. There are a couple of tracks, the bluesy night out, “Waitin’ On You” and especially “Good Ale We Seek,” that flash the band’s hard-rock roots and prog-rock edges, and a taste of punk rock’s abandon can be heard in “X-Ray Spex.” Unfortunately, Starz’s core fans weren’t buying this, and power-pop fans couldn’t seem to shake the band’s history. It’s too bad that college radio wasn’t yet as influential as it would become a few years later, as Attention Shoppers! slipped onto quite a few campus turntables between Cheap Trick and Sparks. It’s great to have this in a digital reissue, all that’s missing is the shopping bag liner that came with the original record! [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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