Bangles - Different Light

YOURZ

Blech...  Girly guitar pop.  Yeah, Susanna Hoffs was hot, okay.  And she played a cool Rickenbacker guitar and looked fuckin' awesome in mini skirts and long boots.  Still doesn't mean I liked the music she was making.

It doesn't help that their biggest song, apart from ergh... Walk Like An Egyptian and Eternal Flame, wasn't written by them but by Prince.  Now, I don't have anything against the pint-sized purple-clad popster (check out that alliteration) but no wonder he gave Manic Monday away.  I probably wouldn't ever have admitted to writing it.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

MINE

I was a bit disappointed when the pointy stick landed on this CD rather than All Over the Place, as that (in my opinion) is by far the better Bangles album.  I had to save my pennies to buy the first album, after I saw Going Down to Liverpool on a late-night music TV show called Rock Arena.  At the time I was an unemployed army wife living in a country town, and I had to get the record shop to order it in for me - on cassette, as we were spending a lot of time in the car driving to Melbourne and back. 

I played that cassette to death, and was delighted to hear the band had a new record out in 1986, when I was living in Brisbane.  Still an army wife but no longer unemployed, I called the city's eclectic record shop (Rocking Horse Records, it's still there) to find they had it - on import from the US.  So I paid through the nose for it, and brought it home.  About three weeks later, Walk Like an Egyptian hit the airwaves, and the Bangles became a household name.  Which of course distressed me no end with my indie-cool.

Listening to it for this exercise, there are songs I like - Return Post and Walking Down Your Street in particular - but it still leaves me feeling a wee bit cheated.  Oh, and please, please do not mention their later hit Eternal Flame - the very thought of that sweetly, syrupy piece of fluff makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

As a side note: these girls owe me for concert tickets I bought in the early 90s for a tour they later cancelled.  I was so depressed I never got a refund - just stared at the tickets for days before throwing them away.  They're touring Oz with Pat Benatar right now... but I just couldn't bring myself to fork out for it.  Hmmm, is that regret I hear now?

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN and put the other one on

For more information: http://www.thebangles.com/

In our collection, we also have All Over the Place

Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

YOURZ

Oh, guess who loves the 80s.  Ladyhawke does, that's who.  But rather than copy the sounds, Pip Brown (her real name) has remodelled the sounds and updated them to create a hybrid blend that works well.

While this album has been in our collection for some time, I dismissed its presence as more girly dance music, the sort Mine loves.  But the reality is far from my rather blinkered point of view.  This album has some great new wave rock moments reminding me of some of Kim Wilde or Pat Benatar, which, in case you're wondering, is a good thing.  (There's also a little bit of Billy Idol as well - just listen to the track Danny & Jenny).

Oh, there are some more obvious influences for sure, but these are more in passing rather than as templates for the whole album.  In fact, Ladyhawke has more depth and substance than many similar artists who have adopted the same stylistic references.  As a début, it's certainly allowing Pip to spread her wings and leave room to fly in any direction she chooses.  And I can't wait to see where she lands.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE:

One of the albums I bought for myself purely with my Music Magazine Mojo (MMM), this New Zealand singer's debt to the 70s and 80s is obvious from the second you begin listening.  Artists that coursed through my mind as the tracks ticked by include 10CC, Gary Numan, the Cars and Blondie.  And there have been times in the past that I've dissed modern bands for re-creating the sounds of previous eras.  I mean, if I want to listen to that sound, I'll play those albums, right?

But there's a moment in this CD - I think it's the hit single My Delirium - that made me just smile and say, what the hell.  When reinventing Sounds Past to make Sounds of Now really works.  Funny, I listened to this a lot when I first bought it but I've been ignoring it recently.  This Stops Now.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.ladyhawkemusic.com/