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My Amazon Reviews: Cat Stevens "Foreigner"

Felined Ambition

3 Out of 5 Stars

While in his creative and commercial peaks as an artist, Cat Stevens was feeling both an artistic and spiritual restlessness that culminated in "Foriegner" in 1973. He chose to produce himself, composed an 18 minute single side "suite," added a string section, more keyboards than acoustic guitars, female singers, and took artistic aim at the likes of Thick as a Brick or Abbey Road. Folks looking for the delicate folk-songs in the vein of "Peace Train" or "Wild World" were caught off guard by ambitiously orchestrated "Foreigner Suite" and the sad, lonely man singing "How Many Times."

Since this wasn't a rehash of Tea for the Tillerman or Teaser and the Firecat, there was a lot of confusion and outright hostility towards "Foreigner" at the time. Of the four more conventional songs on side two, only "The Hurt" entered the Top 40. Given the benefit of a quarter century, the album has in fact aged nicely. The suite has obviously remained a favorite of Stevens/Yusuf over the years, since his most recent recordings (Roadsinger and An Other Cup) have used some of the musical motifs found therin. He may have been growing weary of the rock star game, but you can't fault him for wanting to stretch out.

My Amazon Reviews: Starz "Brightest Starz"

Super Nova
4 out of 5 Stars

Starz was one of those seventies rock bands that always seemed just on the brink of making it but could never quite seem to hit the tipping point. A great lead singer in Micheal Lee Smith, management by Aucion (the same folks working Kiss), twin lead guitars and even a little controversy (the song "Pull The Plug" from Starz). Brighest Starzshows that all this should have combined to make these guys the next Aerosmith.

For some reason, that never happened. They did manage to squeak out a minor top 40 single in Violation's "Cherry Baby," but that was as close to the brass ring as the band got. A gradual evolution towards less darker fare on Attention Shoppers! probably didn't help; songs like "She" or "Hold On To The Night" were more power pop than hard rock. By Coliseum Rock, the band ran out of gas and broke up, although they still maintain an active website and loyal fan base.

This single disc skims the cream off the band's four capitol albums, and offers no alternate or bonus material. There are a few Sweet/Cheap Trick power-pop gems here that should have been hits, like "Sing It Shout It" and "Hold On To The Night," along with doses of arena ready hard rock in "So Young So Bad" and "Violation." There's even the controversial "Pull The Plug" amd "Subway Terror." Starz had a dash of just about every band mentioned in this review and were probably a radio away from being huge. This is a good starter; all the studio albums have since been re-issued.