Truth In Advertising
3 Out of 5 Stars
In a clear case of zigging when you should have zagged, Starz made a blatant bid for commercial acceptance, trying to capitalize on the success of "Cherry Baby" from "Violation." Instead of amping up the harder rocking aspects of that album, the swerved towards the power-poppiness of the charting single. On "Attention Shoppers," the first half of the album emphasized the hooks, softened the rock and turned up the melodies. For a band that originally sounded like they wanted to be Kiss or Aerosmith, suddenly they were coming off as The Raspberries.
Unfortunately, "Attention Shoppers" was met with a collective commercial raspberry, effectively derailing Starz' momentum. Even more unfortunate is the fact that about 50% of the album is really good. The opener, "Hold On To The Night," is first rate pop-rock, and "I'll Be There" comes pretty close behind. In true side one and two fashion, the second half went to the older Starz rock, with "Johnny All Alone" being a terrific blues-rocker. "X-Ray Spex" is a blatant attempt to mimic the energy of punk and was a total hoot.
"Attention Shoppers" lived up to its title in that it was such a obvious attempt at being likable that fans that dug on the rebelliousness of "Violation" or the offensiveness of "Pull The Plug" (or the legendary unreleased live fave "P**s Party"), that the candy coating turned off old fans. It also caused irreparable rifts to form in the group. On the other hand, the songs themselves have aged well, and I have always been partial to the cheekiness of titling your album like an advertisement.
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