Bananarama - Deep Sea Skiving / Bananarama / True Confessions

Premier 80s girl band more of a singles band, really

As the scruffily tomboyish sleeve for their debut suggests, Deep Sea Skiving was ramshackle, yet endearingly creative. Time has not been kind to it, but the likes of Shy Boy, What A Shambles, Young At Heart and Hey Young London still have definite appeal.

Bananarama, meanwhile, hangs together a lot better as an album. The production values are stronger, the songs an improvement, and it has the distinct advantage of including some of the girls’ very best singles, Cruel Summer and Robert De Niro’s Waiting. Of the extra tracks, only the discordant white reggae of Cairo stands out, but this B-side is head and shoulders above almost all of True Confessions. Suffering from 80s production overload, any good ideas were quietly smothered by the slick tidal wave of soulless pop-rock production that was popular at the time. Only two tracks, Venus and In A Perfect World, have survived. The latter, an 80s take on the Shangri-Las, transcends some of the worst production excesses through actually being rather good.

Rhino | 5144200802 / 5144200812 /

Reviewed by Caroline Blase
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