Marti Pellow - Stargazer (2021) [Hi-Res]

'Stargazer' is the latest instalment in a remarkable solo career that's seen Pellow embark on a new project pretty much every other year since he left multi-platinum selling pop sensations Wet Wet Wet in 1999. He's done more as a solo artist, for longer, than he did as frontman with the totemic pop band who dominated the British charts in the Eighties and Nineties. How, then, did this prolific artist approach the creation of 'Stargazer', a collection of new songs that in part pay homage to his love of everyone from David Bowie to Harry Nilsson, Curtis Mayfield to John Lennon? Pellow says, 'I believe Stargazer is about imagination, every day is a school day in songwriting, and that's what this album took me back to. It was a big learning process'. Largely recorded over two, four-day socially-distanced studio sessions in Monnow Valley, Wales, the rich, occasionally epic, beautifully played and orchestrated tracks were mostly recorded live as a stream-of-consciousness in two or three takes. Accompanying Pellow in the studio were brothers drummer Jeremy and guitarist Paul Stacey (The Lemon Trees), with Charlie Jones (Goldfrapp) on bass, and James Halliwell (The Waterboys) on keyboards.