''Stardom Road'' is the thirteenth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...

. It was released by

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is as of 2013 a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest m ...

on 4 June 2007.

Background

''Stardom Road'' was Almond's first new album after his involvement in a near-fatal traffic accident in October 2004. It is an album composed mostly of

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s, a fact borne out of necessity as Almond found himself unable to write following the accident. Almond told ''Time Out'' that the album is intended as "a trip down memory lane, a musical journey from the 1950s to where he finds himself today". The album features collaborations with

Sarah Cracknell Sarah Cracknell (born 12 April 1967) is an English singer-songwriter and lead singer of the electronic music band Saint Etienne. Career Cracknell's career started with the Windsor-based indie band The Worried Parachutes in 1982. Following the d ...

, Antony Hegarty and

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric C ...

, with some of the tracks also featuring members of

Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra (also known as Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra) is a rhythm and blues band led by boogie-woogie pianist Jools Holland. History Holland formed the band in 1994. In May 2022 the 17-piec ...

Critical reception

The album was well received by critics overall. Thom Jurek in his ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'' review calls ''Stardom Road'' Almond's "finest studio moment as a solo artist" and describes Almond's voice as having "never been less histrionic, yet more expressive". ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...

'' critic

Joel McIver Joel McIver (born 10 February 1971) is a British author. His best-known work is ''Justice for All: The Truth About Metallica'', first published in 2004 and appearing in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of Bl ...

calls ''Stardom Road'' "the campest album ever released" and summarises that it is "entertaining rather than cutting edge". The ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...

'' review notes the autobiographical concept and calls the album "a great comeback" that is "kitsch, camp, melodramatic, yet full of heartfelt emotion".

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals *Trevor Barry – bass *Chris Dagley – drums *

Robbie McIntosh Robbie McIntosh (born 25 October 1957) is an English guitarist. McIntosh is well known as a session guitarist and member of The Pretenders from 1982 until 1987. In 1988 he began doing session guitar work for Paul McCartney joining his band fu ...

– guitar,

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

*Mike Smith – piano,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

*Richard Henry –

bass trombone The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to ...

*Winston Rollins –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

*Dominic Glover – trumpet *Chris Storr – trumpet *David Powell –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

*John Anderson –

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

Marius de Vries Marius de Vries (born 1961) is an English music producer and composer. He has won a Grammy Award from four nominations, two BAFTA Awards, and an Ivor Novello Award. Education Marius de Vries was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, Bedford ...

– keyboards, programming *Lenny Plaxico – bass *

Rob Burger Robert Burger (born March 26, 1971) is an American composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and music director. Biography Burger began playing piano at an early age, starting his formal training at age six with the pianist Jeffrey Marcus. He pla ...

– keyboards *Hugh Webb –

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

*Andy Caine – backing vocals *Andy Ross – backing vocals *Anna Ross – backing vocals *

– piano *

Dave Swift Dave Swift (born 11 January 1964) is a British bassist. He is best known for his work on the BBC2 Television program '' Later... with Jools Holland'' as part of Jools's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. Early life and education Born in Wolverhampto ...

– bass *

Gilson Lavis David Leslie Gilson Lavis ( , born 27 June 1951, Bedford, England) is an English drummer and portrait artist. He gained fame as the drummer with band Squeeze in the 1970s and 80s. Lavis is currently the drummer for Jools Holland's Rhythm and ...

– drums * Chris Holland – organ * Neal Whitmore – guitar *

Igor Outkine Igor Outkine (russian: Игорь Уткин, born 1964 in the Soviet Union) is an acoustic and midi accordionist and vocalist. His vocal and instrumental repertoire covers a wide range of music such as classical music, classical and opera, Neapo ...

–

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

*Isobel Griffiths – string contractor *

Gavyn Wright Gavyn Wright is a British violinist and orchestra leader with the London Session Orchestra and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He is best known for his orchestral arrangements on pop productions (including Elton John, Simply Red, Bush, Mecano, Oasis, ...

– string leader

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control 2007 albums Marc Almond albums Albums produced by Marius de Vries Sanctuary Records albums