Customer Reviews

Belinda

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

 

 

Finally! Belinda Carlisle's solo debut in magnificently remastered form! Never have the hits "Mad About you" and "I Feel The Magic" sounded so vibrant!

While not all the material stands the test of time ("From The Heart," "Shot In The Dark"), the majority of the album is solid as an adorable, fun nod to the girl groups of the '60s, mixed with the lush pop sounds of the '80s.

Carlisle's finest moments are her stunning, loving cover of Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold," "I Never Wanted A Rich Man," and the album's ode to the ephemeral nature of romantic love "Stuff and Nonsense."

Also, this album sounds more akin to the Go-Go's work than any of Carlisle's other solo work, so most Go-Go's fans should enjoy this collection.

Sadly, the bonus material rings more than a little redundant, with three additional versions of "Band of Gold," and all of them inferior to the album version. However, the extended version of "Mad About you" is pure pop Heaven.

Bottom line: Belinda Carlisle fans and Go-Go's fans should find this CD wonderful listening.

Belinda's first albumn was bright fun in the sunnier days of the 80's! Hook filled throughout, you can't help to hear the songs in your head long after you turn off the CD. Mad About You, I Need a Disguise and Band of Gold with the incredible Freda Payne are just a few chestnuts you will find on this collection. Classic pop like this doesn't get any better. And the remixes tagged on to the end are great as well. Made me remember going to record store and seeing Belinda in that Red frilly dress with the gold frame around her as I purchased the 12"inch single. Memories indeed............

Well it's about time they re-mastered Belinda's first album!! The sound is crystal clear!! The company should really release this in the US...there are so many Belinda Carlisle fans that have to have this album!!

Although the mid-80s songs sound a bit dated, the cd sounds great!! The extra tracks featured on the CD are great..its so great to hear the extended version of 'Mad About You' on a CD.

This is a must for all Belinda fans!!

I liked the Go-Go's and I loved Belinda's Heaven on Earth album when I was a kid. It was the first album I got by
her and thought it was fantastic, full of lush 80s pop, great power ballads. Imagine my disappointment when I
got this album and expected the same, only to find that other than "Mad About You", it really wasn't. I loved MAY, a gorgeous, sweeping 80s song. But the rest of the album was very different. I honestly could not find much else to like about it. To put it bluntly, it was boring. Years later in my 20s, I decided to give it another try and found myself really enjoying it. Maybe because I was older and my musical tastes had expanded to include more, and I wasn't expecting another Heaven on Earth this time. It has a less-polished sound.

The album is more lightweight than the albums she did later. It's breezy, summery pop. It takes me back to the mid 80s even though I didn't actually own the album yet at that time. It just has that 1986 sound. It reminds me of lazy weekends when I was a kid and just wanted to play or hang out in front of my record player listening to music. Highlights are MAY, I Need a Disguise, Since You've Gone, Shot in the Dark (very catchy), and my personal favorite, Gotta Get to You, because it's a bit rock-sounding, and also, I like songs about unrequited love. I also like From the Heart, which is laid-back but says 1986 all over it. I Feel the Magic sounds like 60s pop, and Band of Gold is a cover of the 60s song. Stuff and Nonsense and I Never Wanted a Rich Man are okay, but my least favorites.

This is not Belinda's best album and a casual fan might want to skip it and just get a greatest hits collection for the singles. But I think it is a must-have for Belinda fans. It doesn't have that immediate grab-you factor that most of her other work has.

This remastered version is very nice. The design of the booklet and the sound quality are great. But the bonus material is lacking. "Band of Gold" is not the best song on the album, and yet we get 3 extra mixes of it. One of them is fine but the other two don't stand out to me. The highlight is the inclusion of the extended "Mad About You", which is just as lovely as the album version and even more interesting at times. I agree with another review that Dancing in the City would've been a great bonus track to include. Or In My Wildest Dreams. But, it's worth buying this cd even if you have the original.

When Belinda Carlisle left the Go-Go's and started to work on her own solo career, music fans all over the world knew that she wouldn't trade on the formula that had made her former band so famous : uplifting, carefree pop-rock songs, with a punky attitude.

What her fans got, however, was a much slicker, more mature and more diverse package than they expected. Songs like "Mad about you" (whose intro sounds exactly like the Go-Go's "This old feeling", by the way !), "I feel the magic", "Gotta get to you", "Shot in the dark" and "I need a disguise" did fall into the more predictable category of what was expected of Carlisle at the time; and not surprisingly, she handled them exceptionnally well, especially the uplifting and spirited "I feel the magic". However, there was much more to this album; the attentive listener will admit that the real showstoppers on this album are its ballads. From the heartbreaking "Since you've gone" right to the beautiful and serene "Stuff and nonsense" (the latter possibly featuring Belinda's most expressive vocals ever), the slower-paced numbers proved that Carlisle was a gifted pop vocalist. A mid-tempo number like "I never wanted a rich man", with its lovely melody and fine vocal harmonies, is also one of the album's many highlights. Perhaps it's because nobody expected her to perform that kind of material, but it worked magic - and it still does, twenty years later.

The album had much success in North America and was certified gold; "Mad About You" became a top 5 smash single, and "I feel the magic" and "Band of gold" were released afterwards (with considerably less impact on the charts). Of course, Belinda hit the jackpot with the meatier, harder-edged sound of "Belinda"'s follow-up (the worldwide smash "Heaven on earth", another gem worth checking out); but "Belinda" is a fantastic debut nonetheless, proving that she had grown into a credible artist.

It is worth mentionning that this long-awaited reissue features a few bonus tracks (and unfortunately, a different cover than the original release); the extended remix of "Mad About You" is fine, and it's nice to hear the single version of "Band of gold" (this time performed as a duet with the original performer of the song, Freda Payne); however, the two additional mixes of "Band of gold" are just not worth it, especially given the single's poor performance on the charts. Completists will be happy about their inclusion, though - but the rest of the album stands just as fine on its own.

Okay, the squatty cover photo is not at all flattering (the original cover sported a leggy pose showing off Belinda's newly svelte physique), and the songs & production definitely remain a product of the mid-80's. But this is a very enjoyable disc, finally available with a solid remaster. Despite early skeptics ("Belinda Carlisle as a SOLO artist?") it's no wonder this album was a hit. Belinda's physical makeover was the best of the entire decade (America luuuuuvs a good make-over!) and "Mad About You" was a perfect summer song with a stylish video. Although the album's worthy second single "I Feel the Magic" failed to repeat the chart success of the first, this newly fabulous California girl had already proven her point. And her biggest successes would follow with her next disc "Heaven on Earth." Still I wonder if the melodramatic "Since You've Gone" might've been a better choice as the album's second single; sometimes a ballad is a good way to follow a danceable hit. Anyway, the remaster of "Belinda" sounds great, emphasizing 60's and Motown influences while showcasing Carlisle's improved vocal skills. The clarity of the sound and the bounciness of the songs make it hard not to bop along, even when things get a little slight. Belinda's tiny, chipper voice won't make anyone forget Freda Payne's original "Band of Gold" especially when Freda guest-stars on the extended mix, blowing poor Belinda away, but it's a great song that always begged for an up-tempo treatment. The extended version of "Mad About You" is a real treat for fans, of course. Sadly, this reissue misses a golden opportunity to include the single remix of "I Feel the Magic," which brought Charlotte Caffey's sprightly piano work to the forefront with Belinda's ebullient vocals. The piano is buried on the album version, robbing the song of some of its pop energy. And it would've been nice to get one of Belinda's hard-to-find soundtrack songs added here, maybe "In My Wildest Dreams" from Mannequin or "Dancing In the City" from Burglar. Complaints aside, this is a very welcomed reissue. Good clean summer fun. Highly recommended.

I guess there's a reason Belinda Carlisle doesn't sing any songs from this CD live anymore except Mad About You- that's the only great song on the CD. Well, Band of Gold is pretty decent, but the rest is pure filler. It's incredible to see how much Belinda changed after this album. She left the record label that released this CD and then recorded Heaven on Earth and Runaway Horses, both superior albums with a plethora of catchy dance hits and beautiful ballads. This CD is for die-hard fans only!