The North Star (Roddy Frame album)

The North Star is the debut album by Scottish singer-songwriter Roddy Frame, released in September 1998 by Independiente. It features the single "Reason for Living", which peaked at number 45 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background
Aztec Camera released their sixth studio album Frestonia in November 1995, marking the end of their contract with WEA. It became the band's least commercially successful release; frontman Roddy Frame opted to go solo and signed with Go! Discs. After a year of no activity, the label had been purchased by PolyGram, and its label head Andy McDonald formed a new label, Independiente. Frame subsequently transferred over to his new home.

Critical reception
The Guardian wrote that Frame has "painted an autumnal landscape of ballads and guitar rockers (if rockers is the right word for these scaled-down little bruschettas of songs) whose attention to detail could be mistaken for blandness."

Personnel

 * Roddy Frame – vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin
 * Andy Claine – backing vocals
 * Yolanda Charles – bass
 * Claire Kenny – bass
 * Jeremy Stacey – drums
 * Mark Edwards – keyboards, piano, organ
 * Luis Jardim – percussion
 * Barriemore Barlow – percussion

Technical


 * Simon Dawson – engineer, record producer
 * Matt Lawrence – assistant engineer
 * Gerard Navarro – assistant engineer
 * Jon Kelly – mixer
 * Andy Green – assistant mixer
 * Ellen Nolan – photography

Chart performance
The North Star spent a total of two weeks in the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 55 on 3 October 1998.