Customer Reviews

All Over the Place

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 0:24 Mins

Hands down the best Bangles album, and I'd go so far as to call it one of the best power pop records ever. "Hero Takes a Fall" grabs you in the first 5 seconds, harmonies and kickass punch and great songwriting, a modern feminist anthem. "James" was, as they said when I saw them open for the Psychedelic Furs at Radio City in '84, Marshall Crenshaw's favorite Bangles song. Drumming Peterson sister Debbie sings the lost Emmit Rhodes classic "Live," Susannah breaks your heart on "Dover Beach," and my God, the Katrina & the Waves cover "Going Doen to Liverpool" is so insanely happy you'll jump up and play it again. Everything good about power pop-- hooks, harmonies, jangle, guitars-- and even better because it's all girls, and they're great. The legend of the Bangles starts here. Make your world a netter place and buy this record. Go on... add to basket. You know tou want to.

PS: Vicki: Text me, OK?

This is a really good album by the Bangles. It's very '60's-infused of the 4 albums they've released. It's a quick listen but nonetheless, I enjoyed every song and have played again and again.

Though previously reissued on CD in 1990, Columbia let the Bangles first full LP drop from the catalog in favor of greatest hits and other collections. Those who began following the Bangles as The Bangs, first hearing them on their self-released single ("Getting Out of Hand" b/w "Call on Me") and follow-up eponymous EP on Faulty, couldn't help but find this major label debut a mixed bag. The layered harmonies that had made the EP so captivating were still there, but the garage-folk edge was mostly smoothed away by David Kahne's production. The music didn't feel as urgent as the earlier tracks, and the vocals seemed arranged rather than organic. Worse, the original songs didn't compare to the gloriousness of their earlier "The Real World" or "I'm in Line," leaving the album's highlights to be covers of The Merry-Go-Round's "Live," and Katrina and the Waves' "Going Down to Liverpool." If you hadn't heard the earlier releases (and given their limited distribution, most listeners probably hadn't), this LP would have sounded fresh and original. But in the shadow of their earlier work, this sounds like a second helping. As they say, you have 20 years to write your first record and a year or two to write your second. Wounded Bird's reissue adds the single re-mix of the lead track, "Hero Takes a Fall." 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Just adding to my CD collection of The Bangles - this 1 has a few on it that other albums don't. A couple of favorites on here, & a couple that I hadn't heard before.