Starbuck is one of the rare '70s pop oddities that live up to their one-hit wonder, delivering music every bit as beguiling and strange as their one-hit wonder. For
Starbuck, that one hit was 1976's glistening synth-and-marimba sensation "Moonlight Feels Right," a slick slice of soft rock that captures the mid-'70s in all its feathered, polyester glory, but the remarkable thing is that their full-length debut -- naturally also titled
Moonlight Feels Right -- followed through on its smooth promise, offering another nine gauchely bewitching soft pop tunes.
Rock 'N' Roll Rocket,
Starbuck's sequel to that 1976 hit, is firmly within the tradition of their debut: it's smooth, tuneful, soft rock, built on synths with guitars swapped out for marimbas. It's the same style, but the emphasis has shifted slightly, with the group pushing discofied rhythms over louche melodies, which makes the album a little less memorable, even if it retains a considerable amount of period charm with its laser-blaster synthesizers and percolating rhythms, and it's hard not to find a bit of camp charm in the subdued swagger of "Don't You Know How to Love a Lady," the disco fantasia of "Everybody Be Dancin'," and the perhaps tongue-in-cheek SoCal breeze of "Benny Bought the Big One."