MINE
That screaming you hear? That would be my dear husband, who believes that listening to Bananarama is akin to musical torture. I, on the other hand, am quite fond of this collection, coming from their heyday in the 80s. It's just pop bubble and fluff, I'll grant you that. But it's fun - in the same way Kylie and Madge and all those other girlies are fun.
I will say there are a few songs on the collection that leave me cold, but who doesn't like getting out on the dancefloor to Venus? I love some of the slower ones like Robert De Niro's Waiting and Cruel Summer - Shy Boy gets me singing too.
But I think the best thing about Bananarama is their reputation as a bunch of party girls. I remember an anecdote told by Triple J DJ Maynard F# Crabbes, who said he'd been getting down with the band at a Kings Cross nightclub some time in the mid 80s, but lost track of them some time during the evening. When he left to catch a taxi home in the early hours, he tripped over them - sitting in the gutter with one (he didn't say which) having a "monumental spew". And then cleaning up quickly to appear on breakfast radio somewhere else. Go, girls.
VERDICT: TURN IT UP
YOURZ
Yep, Mine got it right.
Let me put it this way, listening to the little bits and pieces of this collection (and believe me, I tried, folks, I really tried) was like jabbing very sharp objects in my ears. I just wanted to scrape it all out, put it in a box, take the box for a long drive into the distant hills and bury it a deep hole where it could never get out and torture me again.
Of course, Mine happens to like it, damn it all. So it will stay. But I refuse to listen to it again. This is one you can play when I'm not at home, darling. Please!
VERDICT: THROW IT OUT
For more information: http://www.bananarama.co.uk/
Yourz - I feel your pain, I really do. I'm afraid that the Bananas are a blight on girlie groups everywhere...BUT there was a very small window where they were almost bearable and it was when they were written for and produced by Jolley and Swain. Think 'Robert DeNiro's Waiting', 'Cruel Summer' and 'Rough Justice'.
ReplyDeleteThese were great songs and even Bananarama couldn't mess them up too badly. If they must take houseroom, listen to these and no others. It'll help.
No, I simply can't bring myself to listening to anything by them. I think the best thing they could do is find a way to delete themselves from my musical memory, once and for all.
ReplyDeleteYourZ