Bananarama - Viva album review
9 comments | Published by Rach Read |
What with new girl bands on the block the Dolly Rockers, Paradiso Girls and Girls Can’t Catch plus the return of the Sugababes and Saturdays, we forgot to mention the comeback of one of the biggest girl groups with one of the best band names ever, the grandmothers of them all – Bananarama. (Well, they probably won’t like being called grandmothers and they certainly don’t look like them, so let’s settle for naughty big sisters or slightly shambolic aunts instead.) But can their latest album, Viva, compete with all these young upstarts?
The answer is a resounding yes. Viva sees Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin tackle electro-dancepop with accomplished results – and before naysayers cry about La Roux bandwagon-jumping, 2005’s Drama album saw them in similar territory, so there. First single Love Comes is as good, if not better, than anything the Saturdays have chucked out – an exhilarating electro romp with a chorus that leaves you panting for more. Tracks like The Runner, Dum Dum Boy (both like, totally massive), Love Don’t Live Here and Come Into The Night prove that when the Nanas are on form with this blissful breathless disco, they’re a formidable force.
Elsewhere, the very reason why so many loved Bananarama in the first place is lost – a sense of artless fun, from their shambolic style and public appearances back in their 80s beginnings through the later Stock Aitken Waterman frivolity to their even-now hilarious interviews. Autotuned to the n-th and falling victim to the froideur that often besets electro, the likes of Seventeen and Tell Me Tomorrow glide by leaving little impression whilst a cover of iiO dance classic Rapture is rendered utterly unnecessary by being no better than the original and bringing nothing new to the table.
However, other covers take well to being electro-ed up. Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence is gorgeously lush and possibly the only track that has a slight heartfelt quality to it, Bryan Adams’ rock standard Run To You is gloriously reinvented as a dizzy dancefloor dream and Fox’s S-S-S-Single Bed, though initially banal, soon slinks by seductively with a touch of the Nanas trademark cheek too. And let’s mention The Runner, originally by The Three Degrees, again as it really is magnificent.
They might be past their best, but Viva proves the Nanas are nowhere near their sell-by date either.
Before the days of teentoday tv, Bananarama once let us interview them - read it here.
What's your verdict on Viva?
absoluut
I have tried to like this, since the lead-single Love Comes is pretty good. But this album just contains too much cheesy electrofied rubbish with hideous vocals. Too bad for Bananarama, but it’s over for these cougars.
Ludo
“SSSS single bed” must be a good single!!! love this girls!!!
BRUNO
BANANARAMA IS JUST NUMBER ONE!!!
michael
just bought the album loving it a great feel good chill out album, dont be put of by the fact bananarama are older than some of your mothers, this album is as good as any of the girl bands in the charts, so i recomend you check it out, cool website bananarama.co.uk.
Melanie
I’m loving their album… so fresh and cool. They don’t look their age!!!
daisy
ALthough I’ve been their fan since the 80s, I must say that this cd is just synthesized euro pop. Nothing really stands out. Some songs do have a very catchy beat but in general it all blends from one track to another. I did still buy it in their support but I prefer last album Drama so much more. I wish them the best
dave
great pop album just as good as other girl bands in the charts, but because the girls dont go looking for media attention the album wont reach the masses.
layla
WOW loving this album these ladies really know the pop thing, watever your age teen to middle aged this album is for you, or give it too your dad he was probably a nana admirer in the 80s, a great crhistmas pressy for his stocking .BUY IT NOW.
layla.
sam aston
god these ladies are hotter than lilly allen.