Bananarama - Between youthful dreams and pop songs

It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it

Bananarama were an all-female band who achieved unparalleled popularity in the Eighties and early Nineties. After going through a few line-up changes, the group reached the peak of its fame as a trio, and with the help of some notable names from the late-Seventies punk scene and the skilled behind-the-scenes work of several masters of the era's dance-pop production, they managed to land a string of singles at the top of the charts, eventually selling over 40 million records - enough to earn them the enviable title of most successful all-female band of all time.
Many of their songs became the trademark of an entire era, striking a perfect balance between new wave ambitions, dance rhythms and genuine jukebox super-hits, all while keeping a careful eye on looks, catwalks and cover art. The three women captured the spirit of the Eighties better than almost anyone, and thanks also to a certain commitment to songwriting and a graceful perfectionism applied to every last detail, they even managed to win over the skeptics who had too readily dismissed them as nothing more than a clever record-industry marketing exercise. So what was the secret of their success?

The first steps

The story begins in 1981 in London, where the group is formed by three friends, Keren, Sara and Siobhan, under the name Bananarama, born from a fusion of the title of the American children's show The Banana Splits and the Roxy Music song "Pyjamarama". But let's take a small step back. Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin (both born in Bristol in 1961) have known each other since the age of four, spending their entire childhood and adolescence side by side, attending St. Georges School for girls together, and at the end of the Seventies, once their studies are finished, they move to London to seek their fortune. Woodward picks up odd jobs at the BBC, while Dallin enrolls at the London University of fine arts (fashion-journalism school), where she meets Siobhan Fahey (Dublin, 1958).
The three quickly become close friends, united by their exuberant behaviour and scruffy way of dressing, radically different from that of their fellow students - indeed, all three are fervent followers of the punk scene of the day, and so they start frequenting every hangout and party in the city, doing little vocal improvisations and often performing backing vocals for the likes of Iggy Pop, The Jam, Monochrome Set and others.
Because their lifestyle doesn't exactly fit in with university rules - overly noisy habits, staying out late every night and frequent dawn returns - they get kicked out of their halls of residence, but they keep performing in nightclubs until one evening they're spotted at Taboo by former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, who offers them a place to live in a room above his old rehearsal studio, where he's still working, as it happens, with the other sex pistol, guitarist Steve Jones.

With the help of the two musicians, the three girls record their first demo, "Aie A Mwana" (a cover of an old Black Blood track), and send it to Demon Records. Before that, their only studio experience had been as background vocalists for Department S on the b-side "Solid Gold Easy Action" (a T-Rex cover). "Aie A Mwana" (sung in Swahili, with a tribal rhythm and a faint disco-cartoon flavour) quickly becomes a minor cult hit in clubs and discos on the circuit, and the girls sign to Decca, the future London Records. Malcolm McLaren, longtime manager of the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow, immediately smells an opportunity and offers to take the group under his wing, but his projects - notorious for stirring up constant scandal thanks to their overly explicit sexual references - hardly suit the girls' tomboyish look and their more straightforward, moderate artistic direction, so they turn him down. It will prove to be their good fortune. From the very start, the three show an innate talent - one that will stay with them for the rest of their career - for choosing the right collaborator at the right moment. That's why, to this day, they can rightly boast of never having been an artificially manufactured band, but of always having been the sole masters of their own destiny.
"At the time we were so broke that to save on the water bill we used to use the showers at the public swimming pool," the girls recall with a touch of pride, describing how former Specials frontman Terry Hall got hold of a copy of "Aie A Mwana", and after reading an article about the trio in The Face magazine, struck by their look and easygoing manner, decided he absolutely wanted them on board for his new project, Fun Boy Three, on the track "It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)". The song (a classic jazz number reworked into a pop nursery rhyme) shoots straight to number 5 on the UK charts in 1982, giving Bananarama their first major success.

From there to their first LP is a short step: the following year, in 1983, out comes Deep Sea Skiving, their debut album. Among the main co-writers is the well-known British producer duo Steve Jolley-Tony Swain, already behind some of the best work of Alison Moyet, Imagination and Diana Ross. The record fits perfectly into the fertile landscape of the era's rampant synth-pop craze, but with more than a few wave-era echoes inherited from the girls' own youthful tastes. The stylistic trait that immediately set Bananarama apart from the girl acts that would follow is that the three always sing exactly the same thing in unison, without trying to build harmonies, interweaving melodies or vocal arrangements out of their different voices.
The formula proves a winner right from the start (it will only be set aside for rare, sporadic experiments tucked away on some little-known b-side or remaster), so Deep Sea Skiving is an immediate hit. The girls have an immediate visual impact, a strong image that, combined with undeniable vocal talent and a certain appeal, is topped off by a marked flair for dance, costumes and choreography: that's why, from the very beginning, every one of their albums spawns a seemingly endless string of singles, each accompanied by its own video, every one of which quickly becomes a little cult moment that, step by step, propels them towards unprecedented fame.
The album contains some of the tracks destined to become among the band's best-known classics, starting with the first single taken from it, "Really Saying Something", a playful, soul-tinged ditty that covers a song by The Velvelettes (backing vocals once again courtesy of Terry Hall, returning the favour after a fruitful new collaboration with the girls on four other tracks from his first, self-titled album as Fun Boy Three, released the same year). "Shy Boy", written by the Jolley/Swain duo and initially titled "Big Red Motorbike" (not the last dispute over title choices, which often show noticeable differences between the UK market and American re-releases), marks the first of a long and successful series of studio collaborations between the girls and the famous production team: it's cheeky pop set to quasi-reggae rhythms, dedicated to Mark Gould (a comic actor on some London pirate radio stations), who promptly returns the favour by getting the track played on BBC1 during Christmas '83.
The video for "Shy Boy" marks the directorial debut of Midge Ure and his Ultravox right-hand man Chris Cross, and sees the three girls poking fun at a bespectacled, slightly awkward young man who, after weeks of forced gym sessions and a radical image overhaul, is transformed into a latter-day Fonzie - played for the occasion by Terry Sharp of the Adventures, at the time Sara Dallin's boyfriend. "Cheers Then", on the other hand, is the first song written entirely by the girls themselves: released as the third single, it's one of the trio's first forays into ballad territory, a sweet little tune built on synth melodies which, while it's one of the songs best received by critics, paradoxically fails to achieve the sales results hoped for. "The flop of 'Cheers Then' brought us straight back down to earth. From then on we started taking our careers seriously," Siobhan recalls.

Their verve is immediately revived by the following single "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", another cover, this time of Steam, a Sixties rock band: the original chorus was already fairly popular on its own, but it's especially after this pop-version that at sporting events across the UK (and beyond) every self-respecting set of fans will have an anthem built on the song's melody. "Doctor Love", on the other hand, is written by former Jam frontman Paul Weller, by then already in Style Council mode: it is without doubt one of the best tracks, but curiously it's soon forgotten. The album, finally, revisits their very first single "Aie A Mwana", revised and polished.

The Golden Years

1984 sees the release of the self-titled Bananarama, which achieves even greater success than its predecessor and is promoted worldwide, handing the trio a small first victory over a section of the British press that kept accusing them of having no talent and being merely the product of the skilled work of producers Jolley & Swain, who are again at the helm for this record. Keren, Sara and Siobhan, then, bare their claws, also applying themselves to an admirable job of lyric-writing: the words this time are strong, committed, intelligent (not by chance, for the first and only time, they are printed inside the record) and show a clear artistic and compositional maturation.
It's their best album, and it spawns some of their biggest hits. "Cruel Summer" becomes hugely popular everywhere. The track, a fun synth-pop number with an easy melody and the genre's typical uptempo cadence, is driven by endless radio play, especially after being featured in the soundtrack of "Karate Kid" and in countless commercials. The video is shot entirely in New York, on a sweltering summer day, where the girls are seen being chased by two policemen and fighting back by throwing bananas at them.
But behind some choruses that seem frivolous and catchy at first glance lie themes that are nothing short of explosive. "Robert De Niro's Waiting", another heavyweight in the band's entire output, deals with the subject of rape beneath its usual lively, breezy melodies: the video shows Sara walking alone late at night down dark streets, followed by a shady figure until she arrives home safe and sound. It's one of Bananarama's biggest hits ever, thanks to its catchy title, its infectious rhythm and an irresistible jingle that gave the girls their first live TV appearance in the UK (it would be a disaster, due to a technical problem that ruined the audio for the whole performance) and, above all, a pleasant evening spent with the famous Italian-American actor himself (where, they recall, to overcome the nerves of meeting their idol, they arrived almost drunk).
"Hot Line To Heaven" is a strong stance against drug use, while "Rough Justice" is a protest song about the difficult social situation in Northern Ireland (where, the lyrics say, poor, hungry children aren't even given time to laugh before they die), inspired by the killing, shortly before, in Belfast, of Thomas "Kidso" Reilly, a dear friend of the girls, in a suspicious "military incident". The whole album is dedicated to him through a short 1916 poem by Yeats, whose verses are printed inside the sleeve.
Closing the circle are the very brief instrumental "Link" and the charming "Dream Baby", co-written with Cindy Ecstacy (who gained notoriety for her duet with Soft Cell on the long-version of "Memorabilia", included on the "No-Stop Ecstatic Dancing" remixes).

Their fame starts to become overwhelming, and by the end of that same year the three take part in the Band Aid charity event, which, under the slogan "Feed the world", aims to raise funds to fight world hunger, in particular to address the disastrous situation in Ethiopia at the time. Together with a seemingly endless list of stars, such as Sting, Phil Collins, Paul Young, Wham!, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Midge Ure, Heaven 17, Status Quo and Culture Club, they record the non-profit single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", released for the Christmas season: it's a stunning success that reaches number one in the UK, exceeding even the rosiest expectations of organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Bananarama would later also take part in Band Aid II in 1989, and will in fact be the only artists to appear on both editions (nonetheless, they will turn down the invitation to join Band Aid 20 in 2004, which re-recorded a new version of the single for its twentieth anniversary). Their popularity at this point is immense: between TV appearances, soundtracks and commercials, the three girls and their songs are practically everywhere.
From a strictly artistic standpoint, of course, they are certainly not writing pages of towering musical quality, nor are they offering anything new, but what's striking is the ease with which they live out their moment of glory. Both in the recording studio and on TV, in fact, they seem to be doing only and exclusively what they do best: having fun and entertaining whoever's watching. They never put on the airs of jaded or brash divas, nor do they ever slip into vulgarity, lapses of style or brazen behaviour. The genuine, carefree way they handle the spotlight, and the good humour with which they keep joking about their own superstar status, win everyone over, despite the inevitable lightness of some of their songs. In short, Bananarama are loved by just about everyone, so much so that over the years an endless string of artists of considerable stature, and sometimes unexpected names, will queue up to work alongside them in all sorts of roles, as producers, directors, backing vocalists, songwriters or collaborators of every kind.

The definitive leap forward comes in 1986 with the release of True Confessions. The album marks a decisive turning point for the band, who from here on entrust their fortunes to dance wizards Stock/Aitken/Waterman. It's a particularly fruitful period for the British production partnership (better known by the acronym SAW), capable of turning anything they touch into gold: their stamp is on world-class hits by Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Kylie Minogue and Samantha Fox, but it's with their ultimate masterpiece, Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round", that the trio inaugurate a sound that nothing in the mainstream will be able to match for the whole second half of the Eighties. The three are also able to launch into orbit all the more or less plausible next big things of the moment, such as Rick Astley, Sonia, Mel & Kim, Sabrina Salerno and so on, so True Confessions, too, opens with a bang: the single "Venus" (a cover of Dutch band Shocking Blue) shoots to number one on the US charts and gives Bananarama what would remain their signature song, built on an unstoppable dance-groove and a thoroughly irresistible refrain. The video, too, bears a distinctive signature: it's directed by Peter Care, who had already worked with PiL, Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire in their "Crackdown" phase, and above all some pre-Corbijn Depeche Mode videos. The three girls are filmed letting loose with their usual infectious enthusiasm, dressed as she-devils, Greek goddesses, vampires and so on. The video also marks a radical shift in Bananarama's image, as they shed the cheeky punkette look of their early days to become highly sought-after gay icons, a role they happily embraced, acting among other things as grand marshals of the London Pride in 1994 and the Rome Pride in 2005.
Sales are dizzying, and "Venus" naturally overshadows other noteworthy episodes on the same album, still split between dancefloor rhythms and sharp lyrics, including the other singles "More Than Physical" and "Do Not Disturb" (the last one bearing the Jolley/Swain credit, as the pair end their collaboration with the girls here, giving way entirely to the new SAW production), the romantic ballad "A Trick Of The Night" (later included on the "Jumpin' Jack Flash" soundtrack), the closing track "Hooked In Love" (with lyrics against drug use, donated to the charity project set up to fight heroin abuse, It's a live-in world), the title track "True Confessions" and "Riskin' A Romance", a bonus-track included on the soundtrack of the Michael J. Fox film "The Secret of My Success".

In 1988 comes Wow!, perhaps the band's best-known record. The album achieves decent success at home and in the United States, but it's in Australia that it truly explodes, reaching number one, driven by the singles "I Heard A Rumour", "I Want You Back", "I Can't Help It" and above all "Love In The First Degree" (the group's second biggest hit ever after "Venus"), all four powered by the dance style still painted to perfection by the Stock-Aitken-Waterman trio.
It's right after this chart-topping boom that Bananarama earn the illustrious distinction of the most successful all-female group in history, overtaking the Supremes and thus entering the Guinness World Records, a title they still hold today, one that not even the Spice decade will manage to dent. The girls celebrate this prestigious milestone by paying tribute to the Supremes themselves, with a cover of "Nathan Jones" released as the album's fifth single.
But what made such a resounding success possible?

"Of youth and our teenage dreams Bananarama were formed all these years ago". These are the words with which the girls try to describe their incredible musical journey, and reality went well beyond the youthful dreams of the three girls. Plenty of girl-groups would later try to retrace their steps, never managing to achieve comparable commercial results, trying to close the gap through sultry moves, questionable choices and star-system gimmicks. Because the real difference, as their first hit chorus prophetically put it, "isn't in what you do, but in how you do it". Keren, Sara and Siobhan did it with disarming lightness, freshness and playfulness, to the point of seeming to land at the top of the world almost by accident, never once slipping into arrogance, cheek or conceit, and indeed adding a constant drive to improve.
Productions entrusted to expert hands, fashionable sounds and shrewd choices: with these ingredients, plus a pinch of luck, they laid the foundations for the almost perfect pop song, and they hand us a genuine lesson in character and style on how to keep your feet on the ground once you've reached stardom. Theirs is the infectious enthusiasm of someone riding a rollercoaster for the first time, having a blast now that they're on it and wanting to stay there as long as possible. But sooner or later, for everyone, the time comes to get off the ride.

1988, then, is the high point of their career, made possible by consistently well-judged decisions and the considerable contribution of the SAW production trio, but while on one hand this fruitful partnership helps speed their climb up the charts with the typical electro-pop sounds of the era, on the other it ends up blurring the compositional clarity and the superior artistic inspiration that had marked the previous two LPs. It's precisely because of some disagreements over songwriting and the new, too heavily dance-oriented direction that, following tensions within the group, Siobhan leaves the band to form the new-wave duo Shakespear's Sister with American singer-songwriter Marcella Detroit (named after a famous Smiths song, but without the final "e" in the playwright's name, due to a crude printing error that would deliberately be kept alive). Around the same time, she marries musician Dave Stewart, whom she had met years earlier on the set of his Eurythmics video for "Who's That Girl?", in which the three girls had acted alongside Jacquie O'Sullivan, another longtime friend of theirs, who takes Fahey's place in Bananarama.
The split is anything but painless: a long trail of bitterness follows, to the point that Shakespear's Sister's early hits bear titles such as "You're History", "You Made Me Come To This" and "I Don't Care", poisoned little jabs aimed all too explicitly at their former bandmates.

In the new line-up with O'Sullivan, the first order of business is re-recording the singles "Nathan Jones" and "I Want You Back" (the promotion of their respective videos had previously been halted due to Fahey's pregnancy), which are included on their 1988 compilation The Greatest Hits Collection, along with the previously unreleased "Love, Truth And Honesty", the first and only track written by the new trio, with a surprisingly slow, relaxed tempo for the group's usual standards. But O'Sullivan is largely kept out of any creative decisions, whether artistic, musical or compositional, a reason that, after just two years, also leads her to leave the band — not before achieving a resounding success in 1989, though, the last true one for Bananarama, with a successful cover of the Beatles' "Help!", produced as a single for the Comic Relief charity project. The video is a hilarious parody in which the girls are playfully flanked and mocked by three implausible look-alikes, deliberately clumsy, overweight and tone-deaf (for the occasion played by the brilliant female comedy trio Lananeeneenoonoo), together with a large troupe of dancers of varying degrees of physical credibility. The track is virtually identical to the original, naturally updated with the typical electronic eighties sound, which, along with the girls' infectious enthusiasm, casts a new light and a wave of contagious cheer over what had instead been John Lennon's mood when he wrote it twenty-five years earlier. The result is a thoroughly entertaining clip, and the success is sensational, so much so that right after, the trio embarks on their first world tour across Britain, North America and Asia, curiously forcing fellow act Pet Shop Boys to do the same. Both groups had long been accused of being studio fakes, incapable of singing and playing live, so Neil Tennant had repeatedly stated he would only take his band on stage live if Bananarama did the same. And so it happened.

In 1991 comes Pop Life, which marks an abrupt halt in their rise and also the point of no return in a process of creative decline that from here on will lead to a slow fade in popularity and the eventual unravelling of the group's ambitions. For this LP, the girls had stated their wish to step away from Stock/Aitken/Waterman production, and the album is marked by an attempt — as commendable as it is clumsy — to reinvent themselves, experimenting with an endless range of musical genres: there's the flamenco of "Long Train Running" (performed together with Alma de Noche, a pseudonym concealing the Gipsy Kings), the acid-house of "Tripping On Your Love", remixed by George Michael (with a hand from Martin Glover, aka Youth of Killing Joke, who had just launched the first ever psychedelic-trance label, Dragonfly Records, and was working on some records by Art of Noise, Primal Scream and The Orb, and produces much of this Bananarama record), the reggae of "What Colour R The Skies Where U Live?", the retro-rock of "Outta Sight" and the instrumental dance of "Megalomaniac".
Despite the good intentions, "Pop Life" is overall a flop, and right after its release, as already mentioned, Jacquie O'Sullivan leaves the trio, while Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin decide to carry on as a duo, releasing "Please Yourself" in 1993, an album that for the first time will not come out in the United States.

And then they were two…

The girls once again put themselves in the hands of their long-time producers, themselves now reduced to a duo following Aitken's departure. Mike Stock and Pete Waterman try to relaunch them, stitching onto the ten tracks of the original tracklist the new euro-pop sounds (that is, the style of dance music typical of the early Nineties aimed at reviving the fortunes of fading stars like Bananarama themselves, Kim Wilde, Mandy Smith and others), attempting to update the disco sound made famous by ABBA, who at the time were enjoying yet another successful revival thanks to the Ep "Abba-Esque" by British act Erasure. But the results are mediocre, and indeed the album comes across as a botched ABBA record, so much so that the girls themselves quickly distance themselves from it. The singles "Movin' On" and "Last Thing On My Mind" fail to achieve the hoped-for results, while only "More More More" gets a bit of traction, probably thanks to its title, which will lead the most die-hard fans to chant it at concerts while waiting for an encore. "More More More" (the original is a 1970s disco track by Andrea True Connection) is the album's only cover, and the last Bananarama record for London Records, who, after the resounding failure of Please Yourself, will not renew their contract.

In 1995, the band's seventh studio album comes out, with a distribution that is nothing short of chaotic. Originally released only in Japan under the title "I Found Love" (from the closing track of the same name), it's later launched in various parts of the world (though not in the UK) on different labels under the changed title Ultraviolet, named after the colour of the sleeve and of the video (the cheapest the band ever shot) for "Take Me To Your Heart", which shows Sara and Keren walking through a field of violets. The album pushes the euro-pop approach almost to the point of excess (the only exceptions being the two acoustic ballads "Take Me Away" and "Take Me To Your Heart" itself) and receives negative reviews almost everywhere, except in Italy (where it gets a modest following in clubs) and in Canada, where the first single and opening track, the melancholy "Every Shade Of Blue", manages to reach the top 40.
At this point a long silence begins, broken in 1998 by a brief reunion with Siobhan for the single "Waterloo", a cover of the famous ABBA song of the same name.

2001 sees the release, for the French market only, of Exotica, which alternates new tracks (the few copies of the promo single "If" are quickly pulled from the market, curiously becoming collector's items) with r'n'b reworkings of some of their classic hits, along with the bizarre samba version of "Cruel Summer". The album also features a cover of George Michael's "Careless Whisper": it's not a random choice, since Woodward is in a relationship with fellow former Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley, co-writer of the song, with whom she has been living in Cornwall for over fifteen years.
The following year, in 2002, they celebrate their twentieth anniversary with a performance at the London Astoria: for the occasion, they reunite once again in their original line-up, together with Siobhan.

In 2005 the duo releases Drama, eleven new tracks plus a remix of "Venus" by Marc Almond. Surprisingly, the album's singles achieve remarkable success, especially at home, thanks to a decent return to the synth-pop sounds that had made the band's fortune almost twenty years earlier, leading some to already speculate about a grand comeback. "Move In My Direction" brings Keren and Sara back into the British Top 20 (something that hadn't happened since 1993), and "Look On The Floor/Hypnotic Tango" and the acoustic "Middle Of Nowhere" are also pleasant proof of a renewed and at least respectable inspiration. But it's just a flash in the pan.

Finally, in 2009, Viva comes out, their last record released by Fascination Records: the album offers the usual mix of covers and new songs, with only the single "Love Comes" and a few guitar and bass performances by the girls themselves, who also handle the arrangements, standing out.

Bananarama's official output comes to a halt here for now. Besides the studio albums, their discography includes a large number of more or less official compilations, the most important of which is undoubtedly The Greatest Hits Collection from 1988, both because it's the first to be officially endorsed by the group, and for its spot-on tracklist, which manages to trace the band's golden years, from the early days of "Aie A Mwana" right through to their last big hit, the cover of "Help!". The CD edition also includes a booklet full of anecdotes about the making of their songs, featuring illustrious collaborations, juicy behind-the-scenes stories and, naturally, a pinch of gossip.
2012 marks the thirtieth anniversary of their formation: Keren and Sara carry on with a series of revival shows across England, Dubai and Singapore, and the compilation 30 Years Of Bananarama is released just before the London Olympics, where they perform at the men's beach volleyball final. Some time later, on 23 April 2017, a stunning reunion takes shape: Siobhan Fahey returns to the band, sending fans into a frenzy, so much so that the twenty-three UK dates of the "Original Line-Up Tour" sell out within days. The magic doesn't last long: in August 2018 Siobhan leaves again, this time for good, though a welcome bit of news from the studio arrives just a few months later. On 19 April 2019 Keren and Sara in fact release In Stereo, which breaks, at least in terms of new material, a silence that had lasted since Viva in 2009. The album is preceded by the single "Love In Stereo", a reworking of a track originally written by fellow British act Sugababes, but it fails to make further waves on the charts, despite a playful synth-pop sound that finds three of its finest expressions in "On Your Own", "Intoxicated" and "Dance Music". The other singles, "Stuff Like That" and "Looking For Someone", receive a rather lukewarm reception instead, so In Stereo is quickly filed away as yet another missed opportunity.

In 2020 Dallin and Woodward tell their story in the autobiography "Really Sayin' Something", then, two years later, they're back in action with the pleasant Masquerade (2022), the twelfth album under the Bananarama name, which relaunches the brand decently enough to coincide with their fortieth-anniversary celebrations. The opening track "Favourite" reworks, in an electro-pop key, an r'n'b piece by Alice Dallin-Walker, daughter of Sara Dallin and former Michael Jackson dancer Bassey Walker, with whom the singer had a relationship in the early Nineties. The rest of the tracklist flows smoothly, shaped by producer Ian Masterson on pleasant techno keyboards ("Running With The Night", "Waiting For The Sun To Shine") that echo work he had already done for Pet Shop Boys, Paul Oakenfold, Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Most of the songs suffer from a certain sameness, but overall the sound works. Among the highlights are "Forever Young", "Brand New" (again written by Alice D), the anthemic "Stay Wild" and the melancholic title track "Masquerade", all united by an elegant retro feel. The vocal performances no longer carry the post-punk edge that marked their early days, but rather a dreamy, ethereal quality. Also worth noting are "Velvet Lies" and the catchy "Bad Love", balanced between past and present, a notch below the equally fine "Need A Little More Time".

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