Silver Star

by Dave Thompson More than two years had elapsed since Gary Glitter's last album, a period during which the very last vestiges of his former superstardom had evaporated into nothing. But did the leader care? Not if the best of this, his fifth album, is anything to go by.The most crucial cut is "You Belong to Me." First released in 1976, it now stood as his last truly indispensable single, a multi-hook-layered ballad stomp built not only around a soaring chorus and a primal chant, but also around a circular guitar coda that single-handedly reinvented the trademark Glitter sound. That Glitter himself was paying attention is evident from the rest of Silver Star -- out (to an extent) goes the old stamp and thump of the Glitter Band unleashed; in comes a rocking melodicism that, had he only made the same change a little earlier, might have extended his hit life indefinitely. In the event, the likes of "Roll the Dice" and "Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before" thundered past to very little fanfare, and even the foreboding "I Dare You to Lay One on Me," released as a near-simultaneous single, could not shake Glitter's chart career out of the shambles; following on from the starkly zero-performing "Oh What a Fool I've Been," "I Dare You" became his second successive non-charting single. Silver Star inevitably followed in its dismal footsteps, and Glitter would not release another album for six more years.