Stars of CCTV by Hard-Fi

Stars of CCTV was the debut album from Hard-Fi, the band that formed in Staines-upon-Thames in 2003, and it's a lean, restless record built on dubby bass, clattering drums and big terrace-chant choruses. Richard Archer sings and plays guitar, with Ross Phillips on guitar, Kai Stephens on bass and Steve Kemp on drums, all of them pitching in on backing vocals.

Critics liked it, NME ranked it among the best albums of that year at 23, and it was up for the 2005 Mercury Prize and two Brit Awards. It was a slow burner, too: it entered the UK album chart at number six, then climbed to number one in January 2006 after a reissue of "Cash Machine", and it ended up double-platinum in the UK. "Hard to Beat" and "Cash Machine" are the songs rock radio held on to, and "Gotta Reason" landed on the soundtracks of FIFA 06 and MLB 06: The Show.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.