Stars of CCTV is the debut studio album by English indie rock band Hard-Fi. It was first released on 4 July 2005 through Necessary Records and Atlantic Records. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize.
The album initially entered the UK album chart at number six in July 2005 but, following the success of a December 2005 re-issue of their debut single "Cash Machine", it rose to number one in January 2006, eventually being certified double-platinum (600,000+ sales) in the UK
The song "Gotta Reason" is included on the soundtrack of the football video game FIFA 06 and the baseball video game MLB 06: The Show.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the album was reissued on 4 July 2025 in vinyl form.
Background
The majority of Stars of CCTV was recorded in a variety of unusual acoustic environments – bedrooms, pubs, and played back in Hard-Fi producer Wolsey White's BMW. 1,000 copies of this record were pressed with only 500 going on public sale, and the initial plan was to sell 1,000 each time. However it quickly sold out, receiving critical acclaim and radio play, proving a lot more successful than the band had imagined. Most of the album was recorded in a disused mini cab office, which cost them about £300, and it is known to this day as the "Cherry Lips" Studio (due to the colour of the paint on the walls). The band tried to make their music sound more environmental by putting a microphone in the corridor, which added echo, but background noises caused by people walking past or planes flying overhead could be heard while the band recorded. These background noises can still be heard on the record. The band used the TL Audio Fatman compressor for the album, Archer said "It's alright, it's cheap, you don't have to know what you're doing...".
Stars of CCTV was originally released as a mini album, a very limited release which sold out very quickly. A few months after, the album had been going on sale on websites such as eBay for £25. Talking about the situation, frontman Richard Archer said;
<blockquote>"We had no money but time was a luxury that we did have. So we spent a year planning, then recording it ourselves, and we did all the artwork ourselves too. Even our website was designed by us. We got a book out of the library so we could learn how to do it. Then we had to do it again cos it was a right palaver. So after all that, things took off really quickly and went crazy in the space of two months, which was quite surprising.
After a successful campaign by Atlantic, the Stars of CCTV album re-entered the official UK album chart at No. 4 on 1 January 2006. Two places higher than it originally went in on the week of its release. It reached No. 1 on 22 January 2006. The band's re-release of "Cash Machine" entered the official Top 40 singles chart at No. 14 on 1 January.
The album was listed for 102 weeks in 7 different charts and was certified 2× platinum by the BPI. Its first appearance in the UK Albums Chart was the Top 75 in week 28 in 2005 with its last appearance being week 40 in 2007 in the UK Albums Chart Top 75. Its peak position was number 1 on the UK Album Chart.
Critical reception
Overall Stars of CCTV received positive reviews and on aggregate website Metacritic the album attained a score of 74 out of 100 based on 22 professional reviews.
|align="center| 17
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{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Chart (2025)
!Peak<br />position
|-
| Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)
|align="center"| 17
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable"
!Chart (2005)
!Position
|-
|UK Albums (OCC)
|align="center"|55
|-
!Chart (2006)
!Position
|-
|UK Albums (OCC)
|align="center"|51
|-
!Chart (2007)
!Position
|-
|UK Albums (OCC)
|align="center"|195
|}
Certifications
Singles
5 singles from debut album Stars of CCTV were released.
Like all of the Hard-Fi releases, various formats carried subtle changes to differentiate them on the shelf, making them all collectable, such as "Hard to Beat"'s changing sky to "Living for the Weekend"'s countdown to 18:00.
The Tina mentioned on some of the sleeves formed a subplot throughout all the single releases. She later became a bit of a talking point both in the music press and on the fans forums.
{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Information
|-
|align="left"|"Cash Machine"
- Released: 26 January 2005
- Chart positions:
- Chart Ineligible
|-
|align="left"|"Tied up too Tight"
- Released: 4 April 2005
- Chart positions:
- #15 UK singles chart
|-
|align="left"|"Hard to Beat"
- Released:
20 June 2005 (UK)<br />18 April 2006 (United States)
- Chart positions
- #9 UK singles chart
- No. 9 UK Singles Downloads Chart
- No. 34 US Modern Rock
- No. 80 Germany
|-
|align="left"|"Living for the Weekend"
- Released: 19 September 2005
- Chart positions:
- #15 UK singles chart
- No. 27 UK Singles Downloads Chart
|-
|align="left"|"Cash Machine" <small>(re-release)</small>
- Released: 26 December 2005
- Chart positions:
- #14 UK singles chart
- No. 15 US Modern Rock
- No. 39 Ireland
- No. 60 Sweden
- No. 75 Germany
|-
|align="left"|"Better Do Better"
- Released: 10 April 2006
- Chart positions:
- #14 UK singles chart
|}