Attention all glam rockers! Put on your platform boots, slap some make-up on your face, grab your flutes, crank the speakers up to 11, and get ready for Bobbie Dazzle’s return! Still flying the flag for Rise Above Records, Bobbie returns with her second album, Star Power, following her 2024 debut Fandazbidozi and continuing the glam-fuelled journey she began with her first record.
Sian has come a long way to prove that she’s more than just the former front-woman of Alunah. She has risen to the next level, carrying the torch where Bowie, Slade, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, and Marc Bolan left off, and making sure those flames never burn out.
Listening to Star Power has put me on the edge of an intense roller-coaster ride as Bobbie keeps the glam energy rolling with progressive, hard-rocking, and ’70s power-rock voyages that fire on all cylinders. It’s epic, it’s in-your-face, and it needs no apologies. Dazzle is very much our answer to Captain Marvel, soaring into the cosmos and continuing the legacy that Carol Danvers left behind.
With keyboardist Chris Dando, guitarist Tadhg Bean-Bradley, bassist Leon Smith, and drummer Eddy Geach providing the backbone, Ash Baker also helps out on guitar while contributing to the recording and production behind Bobbie’s second album. Add The Runaways’ Lita Ford and Pendulum’s Gareth McGrillen lending a helping hand, and you have even more firepower behind this bad boy.
Bobbie even opened for Lita at London’s O2 Arena last year for the special Girls’ Night Out event on July 24th, showing just how much girl power is packed into this record. And in the words of HUNTR/X, Bobbie shows them how it’s done, done, done!
The opening title track is one of the most impressive pieces of work here, featuring galloping riffs, powerful organ, and intense drum patterns that bring to mind Boston’s self-titled debut, with a fiery response to ‘Foreplay / Long Time’ and bits of Starcastle thrown into the middle of the composition. Hearing this, I can easily imagine Bobbie digging into the ’70s arena-rock scene for inspiration and using it to create such a fiery introduction.
Then it’s time to crack open a six-pack and get ready for a sing-along, foot-stomping celebration with a massive dose of ‘Dirty Martini’. Bobbie serves up the drinks while piling on the bar tabs, getting everybody on their feet with scorched prog-glam attacks that cross T. Rex with Premiata Forneria Marconi. It may sound like an odd combination, but, man, Bobbie can bring the house down!
What is this? Is Dazzle diving into the Marvel comic books and stepping into Captain Marvel’s shoes, carrying on the legacy Carol Danvers left behind? As she soars across space and time in this Moog-like thumper, ‘The Passenger’, you might just be right on the money.
You can envision her aboard a space shuttle, making the jump to light speed and transforming into the next Captain Marvel as she sings through the asteroids with blaring organ, powerful drum patterns, and magnificent riffs that hurl you through the cosmos. After the first three tracks, Bobbie shows her softer side by heading to the piano and singing about this strange planet she has landed on.
‘Jack Rabbit’ opens with killer lyrics and an Elton John-like introduction straight out of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road era, before shifting into a NWOBHM approach that sounds like a sequel to ‘Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding’. With Tom Scholz-like arrangements and Queen-esque harmonised vocals make this exploration all the more worthwhile.
And dare I say, I even hear the influence of the unsung pomp-rock maestros Aviary, with the song militantly descending into Alice’s rabbit hole for a psychedelic adventure. Bobbie is absolutely screaming for vengeance and going in for the kill!
But as soon as Dazzle gets her mighty flute out, as if it were a transformation weapon straight out of the Filmation era, she becomes a warrior in the dark. Between the final section of ‘Wonder’ and the folk-like, mystical waltz-metal interpretation of ‘The New Thing’, Bobbie sounds like Princess Adora lifting her sword to become She-Ra, preparing to fight the forces of evil. With Focus and Jethro Tull seemingly watching over her shoulder, she makes sure their legacies remain alive and well.
Once the bluesy arrangements fire into overdrive on ‘Take to the Streets’, Bobbie lays down a shuffling groove, capturing the spirits of Queen’s glam period, Jimmy Page, Janis Joplin, and Slade and blending them into one delicious strawberry-blueberry-banana smoothie, with a generous sprinkle of glitter thrown into the protein shake. It’s a tasty combination that leaves you wanting more.
Holy crap! Do I hear nods to Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number of the Beast’ and Queen’s ‘Flick of the Wrist’ in the middle of this battlefield? Bobbie is preparing for war with a ’60s garage-rock attitude on ‘Planets Collide’, creating an odd but killer twist.
Oh, Bobbie isn’t backing down without a fight! You can practically imagine her firing missiles at the baddies in her own take on the ’90s Marvel animated universe, back when it was cool to watch before the corporate falsetto mouse came along.
And you have to wonder if ‘Planets Collide’ could become a live favourite one day. If it does, I can easily picture it becoming an encore with audiences cheering Bobbie on as she delivers one of her ultimate crowd-pleasers. From there, she channels a Zeppelin-like attitude, revs up the motorcycles, and blasts down the highway with the psychedelic swirl of ‘Snakes & Ladders’, exploring the search for your own identity and who you really are.
Then it’s time to close up shop with another galloping ride off into the night as we ‘Feel It Too’. Once again, Bobbie Dazzle shows no signs of stopping. Star Power keeps the spirit of glam, progressive rock, hard rock, and ’70s power rock alive while adding plenty of her own personality, humour, and imagination to the mix.
It’s a colourful, larger-than-life journey packed with roaring guitars, powerful keyboards, thunderous drums, soaring vocals, and enough glitter to light up the entire galaxy. Bobbie Dazzle has taken the glam-rock torch, added her own spark, and carried it somewhere entirely her own. If this is where she’s heading next, then I’m more than ready to see what kind of wild experiment she cooks up in her glam-rock laboratory.
And, as Jem from the 1986 animated series would say: “Showtime Synergy!”
