''Stars of CCTV'' is the debut studio album by English

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Hard-Fi Hard-Fi are an English indie rock band, formed in 2003 in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. The band's most recent lineup before going on hiatus consisted of Richard Archer ( lead vocals and guitar), Kai Stephens (bass guitar and backing vocals) an ...

. It was first released on 4 July 2005 through

Necessary Records Necessary Records is a record label based in the UK, founded by Warren Clarke, a former A&R executive at London Records and Edel, in 2003. Clarke describes that the label was born out of a creative necessity. "It's an outlet for records that s ...

and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the 2005

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

. The album reached number one on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

in January 2006, taking it about five months to reach number one mainly due to the preceding single "

Cash Machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

" catching the sellers' attention; its original peak position was number six. The album has sold 1.2 million copies worldwide, with over 300,000 in the UK alone. It was certified 2× platinum by the BPI for selling 600,000 copies in the UK. The song "Gotta Reason" is included on the soundtrack of the

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video game ''

FIFA 06 ''FIFA 06'', known as ''FIFA Soccer 06'' in North America, is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in the United States on 4 October 2005 for the Play ...

'' and the

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video game '' MLB 06: The Show'' .

Background

The majority of ''Stars of CCTV'' was recorded in a variety of unusual acoustic environments – bedrooms,

pubs A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, and played back in Hard-Fi producer Wolsey White's BMW. 1,000 copies of this record were pressed with only 500 going on public sale, and the initial plan was to sell 1,000 each time. However it quickly sold out, receiving critical acclaim and radio play, proving a lot more successful than the band had imagined. Most of the album was recorded in a disused mini cab office, which cost them about £300, and it is known to this day as the "Cherry Lips" Studio (due to the colour of the paint on the walls). The band tried to make their music sound more environmental by putting a microphone in the corridor, which added echo, but background noises caused by people walking past or planes flying overhead could be heard while the band recorded. These background noises can still be heard on the record. The band used the TL Audio Fatman

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

for the album, Archer said "It's alright, it's cheap, you don't have to know what you're doing...". ''Stars of CCTV'' was originally released as a mini album, a very limited release which sold out very quickly. A few months after, the album had been going on sale on websites such as

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

for £25. Talking about the situation, frontman Richard Archer said;

"We had no money but time was a luxury that we did have. So we spent a year planning, then recording it ourselves, and we did all the
artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...
ourselves too. Even our website was designed by us. We got a book out of the library so we could learn how to do it. Then we had to do it again cos it was a right palaver. So after all that, things took off really quickly and went crazy in the space of two months, which was quite surprising."

Release

The album's launch party was scheduled for 7 July 2005 at Cheekees night club in Staines (where their top ten single "Hard to Beat" was filmed), but this was cancelled due to the ill health of Richard's mother, and the

London bombings London attack may refer to any of the following attacks that have occurred within London, London metropolitan area, City of London, Lundenwic, Londinium, or County of London: ;Actuated attacks * List of terrorist incidents in London ** 1973 Old Ba ...

also occurring that day. Her death resulted in the band pulling out of the

Glastonbury festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. The launch party was rescheduled for 13 July 2005 and the venue changed to

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

, London. Richard says that he is no longer friends with Cheekee because of an incident involving him describing his nightclub to a newspaper like "a bad wedding". Richard defended himself by saying "...but everyone likes a bad wedding so I don't see what the problem is."''Hard-Fi on Popworld again''
video interview with Simon Amstell After a successful campaign by Atlantic, the ''Stars of CCTV'' album re-entered the official UK album chart at No. 4 on 1 January 2006. Two places higher than it originally went in on the week of its release. It reached No. 1 on 22 January 2006. The band's re-release of "Cash Machine" entered the official Top 40 singles chart at No. 14 on 1 January. The album was listed for 102 weeks in 7 different charts and was certificated platinum by BPI. Its first appearance in the

was the Top 75 in week 28 in 2005 with its last appearance being week 40 in 2007 in the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

Top 75. Its peak position was number 1 on the UK Album Chart.

Critical reception

Overall ''Stars of CCTV'' received positive reviews and on aggregate website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the album attained a score of 74 out of 100 based on 22 professional reviews. The ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' described the album as "the album of the year" and gave the album 9/10 in a very positive review. Dave Simpson of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the album three stars out of five, writing that "Hard-Fi's edge over more derivative rivals lies in a formula that delivers old Specials and Clash

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

vibes with the big-tune ratio of a boy band". He however deemed some of the later tracks on the album "filler". In a 3.5/5 star review for

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 ...

, MacKenzie Wilson wrote that "They sound like a garage band while delving into the monotony of everyday suburban life, referring to their small town upbringing. Thus a raw kind of work ethic gradually emerges on Stars of CCTV. Their formula of snappy choruses and tight guitar hooks, particularly on "Middle Eastern Holiday" and "Gotta Reason," captures Hard-Fi's youthful presentation".

Track listing

All tracks written by Richard Archer. # "

" – 3:42 # " Middle Eastern Holiday" – 3:44 # " Tied up Too Tight" – 4:48 # "Gotta Reason" – 2:49 # " Hard to Beat" – 4:13 # "Unnecessary Trouble" – 3:44 # "Move on Now" – 5:08 # " Better Do Better" – 4:37 # "Feltham Is Singing Out" – 4:36 # " Living for the Weekend" – 3:42 # "Stars of CCTV" – 3:58

Mini album track listing

# "

" – 3:42 # " Hard to Beat" – 4:13 # " Middle Eastern Holiday" – 4:48 # "Stronger" – 3:23 # "Hard to Beat (Mix)" – 3:28 # "Gotta Reason" – 2:49 # "Feltham Is Singing Out" – 4:36 # "Move on Now" – 5:08 # "

" ( Wrongtom Mix) – 3:43

Bonus tracks

* "

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" (

White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wi ...

cover) (

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

) * "

Sick of it All Sick of It All is an American hardcore punk band formed in 1986 in Queens, New York City. The band's lineup consists of brothers Lou and Pete Koller on lead vocals and guitars respectively, Armand Majidi on drums, and Craig Setari on bass. Sick ...

" (Japanese CD,

) * " Stronger" (Japanese CD,

)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

5 singles from debut album Stars of CCTV were released. Like all of the Hard-Fi releases, various formats carried subtle changes to differentiate them on the shelf, making them all collectable, such as "Hard to Beat"'s changing sky to "Living for the Weekend"'s countdown to 18:00. The ''Tina'' mentioned on some of the sleeves formed a subplot throughout all the single releases. She later became a bit of a talking point both in the music press and on the fans forums.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stars Of Cctv Hard-Fi albums 2005 debut albums Warner Music Group albums Concept albums