'Girls About Town'
From there on, it's a stompin' rock/dance excursion into retro-Motown and early Brit-pop. Skip the first two songs on 'Deep Sea Skiving', (Both covers, one a stinker by Paul I-Was-Talented-Once Weller) and head straight for 'What A Shambles' as the start of Bananarama's debut album proper.
The Nana's (The best-selling all girl-group in the history of the world I remind. No, it's not the Go-Go's (!)) have a rather naïve, flat, almost deadpan delivery, but this is more than compensated for by great song-writing hooks and clever, uncluttered arrangements.
Highlights are many; the Dollar-like 'Cheers Then' is a monster, 'Boy Trouble' is quite touching in typically distant Nana fashion, and the album's closing number 'Wish You Were Here' is almost anthemic in a surging, terrace chant sense.
This kind of pop doesn't date the same way as the sound of hair-metal or synth-duo's. OMD's 'Architecture and Morality' for example, still stands up brilliantly, but it's recognisably of it's time. 'DSS' could've been recorded last week.
Image-wise, though manufactured cutie-cuties, I always found them rather sexless. A bit dungarees and worthy-women's-groups earnest but totally meaningless sloganeering. The BIG hair only half gives it away, guys of course, had big hair in the 80's as well. (Oh for the days of the centre-parting!)
'DSS' is the essence of Bananarama before they went all SAW, high-nrg and high-tech, (ie; dead!) The cover is awful, (Don't 'View Large' for God's sake!) they look about 14 and gawky, in a mock-up aquarium, and inside, they pose innocently with. . . . banana's. (!) Who thinks these things up? (Warning; creative genius at work. )
Two years later they were having none of this, they were sophisticated diva's after a sharp injection of glamour. Still not sexy, but now with records that stank. Such is the inevitable, almost organic, decline of the many in music.
But we have 'Deep Sea Skiving' and it's worth having. Nothing profound, nothing sacred, nothing demanding or controversial. Comfortable in it's own skin you might say, and ultimately, extremely enjoyable.
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"Dive" Into "Deep Sea Skiving" !!!
This reissue was a treat for many reasons. .
First, being Bananarama's oldest album, the digital
remastering made quite an impact on the sound quality. . .
I compared "Shy Boy" from my original CD to this new one,
and was blown away by the sound difference !
This is a great album, one of Bananarama's best. . .
Some great singles came off of this CD,
"Shy Boy", "Really Saying Something", "Cheers Then"
and "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)".
But what really makes this CD special is the
previously unavailable "B-Sides". . .
As a Bananarama fan, it was a real treat to
hear a song that I've never heard before,
"He's Got Tact", which is very rare (and rather good) !
Also nice to hear some old vinyl "B-Sides" (Sounding crisp and new),
such as
"Tell Tale Signs" and a cover of The Sex Pistol's "No Feelings" !
Also, I must say, the packaging is great, they have retained all of
the "Ocean Theme" pictures, (as well as "Baby Pictures" of the group members)!
(These pictures were featured on the inner sleeve when the album was released WAY back in 1983).
"Deep Sea Skiving" is good clean fun !!! .
Yup, Really Saying Something!
From excellent songs like What a Shambles, to Shy Boy it is all here. A great debut from Bananarama, though they don't sound as confident as on their other albums this album is still a gem. The bonus tracks are good too. I would recommend this album to everyone, such good work! .
I LOOOOOOOOOVE This!
This album is by far their best and now, thanks to Rhino, has been digitally remastered and has never sounded better. It is about time that someone did some justice to Bananarama reissues. Plus there are bonus tracks, Non-album singles & B-Sides, whick are a very welcome treat, especially because all these songs were very rare. Thank god for Rhino for finally showing Bananarama & their music some respect. Bananarama, True Confessions, Wow!, Pop Life, & Please Yourself have also been given the royal Rhino treatment, which leave the previous Collectables reissues (no remastering, no bonus tracks, no liner notes) in the dust.
1 star for the reissue, not the music
This is entirely unfair, in my opinion. Bananarama has always been relegated to fluff and nothing to be taken seriously. The girls (now a duo) Siobhan Fahey, Sarah Dallin, and Keren Woodward were and are talented musicians. They co wrote most of the music on their albums. The style early 80s dance synth pop as one would expect. It is amazingly devoid of filler and the album tracks are just as good as the singles which are fantastic. "Shy Boy" being one of my favorites. Their debut is their best album, which is a shame because this reissue is so poor.
There are many levels these reissue disappoint. For starters, the remastering is a classic hack job typical of the music industry now. The CD is loud, compressed and maximised. This may not bother people who are listening on computers but there are a number of us out there who still use those crazy old stereo systems. Now, the dynamics have not been ENTIRELY squashed as the wave graph image does not look like a brick wall - but it is close. My West German CDs from the 80s sound better.
The extra tracks are very welcome but they suffer the same problem as the album tracks per the remastering. Though I have read reports that on some of the other albums, the extra tracks were mastered from vinyl. I have not listened to them yet and can't attest to it, but I believe it. Whether or not they lost the original tape or were simply lazy is an open question. Either way, the reported mastering from vinyl is horrendous. Mastering from vinyl is always a bad decision but you can make it sound quite good with some extra processing. The Wake's "Here Comes Everybody + Singles" was mastered from vinyl because they lost the master tape - and they admit to it in the liner notes! At least they are honest.
That's another thing, the liner notes leave a lot to be desired. The photographs are not period appropriate. There are no lyrics or any notes to speak of except a very brief overview of the album. Also, there are various spelling errors.
Ugh, I hate being the downer but I've been waiting for these for a long time. I had high hopes as London Records/Rhino are not an incompetent bunch. Why this happened is a mystery. My suggestion is either track down the original CDs from the 80s or buy the Collectables reissues available on Amazon. Disregard the reviews. Most people expect CDs to blow their drums out and the Collectables are flat transfers without any mucking of the music. They were not digitally ripped or anything; just a basic cheap reissue.
You can see a complete list of all Bananarama discography, or go back to the Bananarama tabs
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