New Wave Outpost Forum

If anyone's interested...this new Bananarama album is horrendous. The most puzzling part of this mess is their rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence" among a bevvy of numbers that aspire to be nothing more than a plastic wrapper. It's quite possibly the best example of what happens when artists of a certain age forget about their own supremacy (they did make some awesome records!) in the wake of competing with teenagers. The music, the freakish, mannequinesque way they look--everything these women have become is laughable. They've gone from a group with great individuality to dancefloor hack. Of course, they've lost the one factor that gave them any shots at legitimacy: Siobhan Fahey. Her own single "Bitter Pill" is electro, but still miles ahead of any of this have-it-for-ya-by-five nothingness.

I made it through one listen. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but I was at least expecting something listenable. Good call.

you guys had more faith in bananarama than me - i thought they jumped the shark with the third album 20+ years ago - even before siobhan quit! i still love the first two albums though...

The last one wasnt so bad, it was listenable.
They seem to have a problem with covers lately...There was that french only album with that bad version of Wham's Careless Whisper, so this could compare to that one.

The Youth produced Pop Life to me was their best album only because he was involved.

I wasn't impressed with this CD either, I'm sad to say. I actually liked "Drama" and to me it seemed that Bananarama going the electro-dance route made sense. But they don't even sound like themselves here (granted, they're older, but...), and the material isn't very strong; nothing really stands out and grabs you. In my opinion, there might be a couple of decent tracks on the album, but certainly nothing I couldn't live without.

I thought Pop Life was a superb album, but it would have had that extra edge had Fahey been involved. The thing I always liked Bananarama's first 4 albums is that their singles seemed like cool toys. Disposable but things I'd look back on like it was yesterday. Funny, but I never really considered them singers as much as I considered them personalities. Now, on this new stuff, it sounds EVEN LESS like singing and even more like machines. And the personality? None at all.

Girls aloud are probably preparing a new album so is Fascination records filling some gap with this record! Never made it through the whole record.

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