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The Bangles
Sweetheart of the Sun - Koch 2011
Tracks: 1. Anna Lee / 2. Under a Cloud / 3.Ball N Chain / 4. I'll Never Be Through With You / 5. Mesmerized / 6. Circles in the Sky / 7. Sweet and Tender Romance / 8. Lay Yourself Down / 9. One of Two / 10. What a Life / 11. Through Your Eyes / 12. Open My Eyes
Comments:
This fifth Bangles album from 2011 was released eight years after its predecessor "Doll Revolution". Since then, bassist Michael Steele left the group, which on "Sweethearts of the Sun" has thus become a trio. However, the sound is still unmistakably The Bangles, who with ten new self-composed tracks appear both very inspired and comfortable.
The title and the opening number "Anna Lee" is supposed to have been inspired by a biography written about the three great singer-songwriters Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon.
"Anna Lee" written by the three group members together and with lead vocals from Susannah Hoffs is a great power-pop song that contains all the best that characterizes the Bangles.
Lead guitarist Vicki Peterson shines on her own "Lay Yourself Down", which is a nice mid-tempo pop song with an inciting guitar theme.
Debbie Peterson's strongest contribution as lead vocalist is on "Mesmerized", where she almost sounds like Marianne Faithful.
On the whole, the album is characterized by fine vocal performances and well-written songs, and you sense in the vocal-harmonies a considerable inspiration from The Beatles.
There are also two cover tracks, of which Todd Rundgren's Nazz track "Open Your Eyes" is the best. The Carter/Lewis songwriting duo, who wrote many hits in the 1960s, also wrote the rather obscure "Sweet and Tender Romance". In The Bangles version, it has become a somewhat chaotic track, and probably the album's low point.
A new inpired album from The Bangles - now as a trio
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