Starpeace
| Starpeace | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Yoko Ono | ||||
| Released | 18 February 1985 | |||
| Recorded | Right Track Recording, New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:21 45:05 (reissue) |
|||
| Label |
PolyGram Rykodisc (reissue) |
|||
| Producer | Bill Laswell, Yoko Ono | |||
| Yoko Ono chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Season of Glass | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
  |
| Robert Christgau | B- |
| The New York Times | favorable |
| Rolling Stone | favorable |
| Sounds | |
| Spin | unfavorable |
Starpeace is Yoko Ono's 1985 concept album, designed to spread a message of peace around the world as an opposition to Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense system. As with most Ono albums it did not chart extensively but the single release of "Hell in Paradise" reached #16 on the US dance charts.
In 1986, Ono set out on a world tour to accompany the album's message. The CD reissue by Rykodisc in 1997, includes a live recording of "Imagine" from the sellout Budapest show of the tour. An a cappella version of "Now or Never" from the same show was also a bonus track on A Story. Words, music, concept, and vocals by Ono.
The 1984 video documentary release Yoko Ono: Now & Then includes footage of the recording sessions for Starpeace. Over the end credits, Ono performs an unreleased song apparently entitled "Rainbow Time".
A 12" promo single was released for the song "Cape Clear", featuring a re-edit of "Walking on Thin Ice" on the flipside.
The album was generally poorly received by critics. Sounds gave it a one star (out of five) review, calling it "a slab of pretentious AOR offal".Spin writer Armond White called it "a Sesame Street album for children who think My Weekly Reader has been withholding the truth", and said that "the album's placidity and earnestness make embarrassing claims on our emotions".Allmusic writer Richie Unterberger gave it two stars, stating that the tracks were "often imbued with a kind of sappy utopianism". Peter Buckley, in The Rough Guide to Rock, described the album as "a rather bombastic error of judgement, laden down by pseudo-cosmic philosophizing". Rick Shefchik, in the Charlotte Observer called it "the same old '60s hippie drivel".
On the other hand, Robert Palmer of The New York Times gave the album a positive review, calling it "splended" [sic], viewing it as "the most balanced album Miss Ono has made", and describing it as "state-of-the-art pop music for 1985". Rolling Stone also reviewed the album positively, with Anthony Decurtis writing that "Starpeace seamlessly fuses artistic daring and accessibility... there can be no denying that this fifty-two-year-old pop star now fully deserves to be reckoned with on her own demanding terms".
...
Wikipedia