BANANARAMA

DRAMA

INFORMATION

Bananarama's fantastic electro-dance-pop "Drama" album which includes lead singles "Move In My Direction" and "Look On The Floor" was released in the UK on 14 November 2005 on independent label A&G Records. This was their first album since 1993's "Please Yourself" to be released in their home country. Keren and Sara worked with producers from the Murlyn team as suggested by Sara, including Mute 8 and Korpi & Blackcell (J-Lo, Britney Spears), and also producers Ian Masterson and Terry Ronald (who produced the girls' 2002 soundtrack cut "Love Leave Forget" and have also worked with Geri Halliwell, Danni Minogue etc.). The girls co-wrote all the tracks on the album except for the new remixes of Nana classics "Venus" and "Really Saying Something" which were added on as bonus tracks. Jeremy Wheatly who has worked for Sugababes, Girls Aloud and Sophie Ellis-Bextor was also brought in to remix many of the tracks on the album.

"Drama" has a great party vibe and is reminiscent of the girls' classic "WOW" album, only with a more updated and contemporary sound. The songwriting is ace, the songs are full of pop hooks and the girls do really nice things with solo bits, harmonies and layering of their vocals. Highlights include the dancefloor monsters "Look On The Floor","Don't Step On My Groove", "Feel For You" and what is fast-becoming one of my favourite Bananarama songs ever "I Love The Way". Variety comes in the form of the bossa-nova styled "Middle of Nowhere" and the dreamy Goldfrapp-esque "Waterfall".

Sadly, the album did not chart well when released in the UK because A&G pulled a lot of the publicity at the last-minute after losing faith in the girls when "Look On The Floor" only went Top 30 instead of Top 20 as "Move In My Direction" had done.

The album is also already available in the following countries: Australia (Central Station), Austria (Edel), Belgium (ARS), Canada (True North), China (Love Da), Denmark (Alarm Music), Germany (Edel), Holland (Go Entertainment), the Gulf States, Ireland (A&G), Israel, Japan (Pony Canyon), Korea (Swat), Malaysia, the Philippines (Universal), Russia (Megaliner), Singapore (EQ Music), Spain (Blanco Y Negro), South Africa (RPM), Switzerland (Edel), Taiwan (Avex) and United States (The Lab).

CHARTS

US (Electronic / Dance Top 25): #21 (updated 29 May 2006)

TRACKS

2. LOOK ON THE FLOOR(Hypnotic Tango)
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/H. Korpi/M. Wollo/Mauro Malavasi/Stefano Micheli

3. WATERFALL
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/H. Korpi/M. Wollo

4. FREQUENCY
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/L. Guest/B. Walker

5. FEEL FOR YOU
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/I. Masterson/T. Ronald

6. DON'T STEP ON MY GROOVE
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/H. Korpi/M. Wollo

7. MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/B. Higgins

8. I LOVE THE WAY
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/D. Masters

9. LOVE BITE
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/H. Korpi/M. Wollo

10. RULES OF ATTRACTION
Written by:Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward/H. Korpi/M. Wollo

11. YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A DRUG
Written by:Sara Dallin/Masterson/Ronald

12. VENUS Marc Almond's Hi NRG showgirls Remix
Written by:Robert Leeuwen

13. REALLY SAYING SOMETHING Solasso Mix remixed by Solasso
Written by:Whitfield, Holland, Stevenson/ Vocals courtesy of Warner Records UK

Detailed information about the UK singles "Look On The Floor" (UK #26), "Move In My Direction" (UK #14) and "Really Saying Something 2005" (limited release) is available on the singles' respective pages on this site.

In the US, a "Drama Remixes Vol. 1" CD was released in Oct 2006 and featured the following tracks:

1. Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango) - (Solasso remix)
2. Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango) - (Soul Seekerz remix)
3. Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango) - (Angel City Extended remix)
4. Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango) - (Yomanda Dub remix)
5. Look In My Direction (Hypnotic Tango) - (single version, radio edit)
6. Move In My Direction - (Bobby Blanco & Miki Moto Vocal mix)
7. Move In My Direction - (Lovefreekz remix)
8. Move In My Direction - (Angel City remix)
9. Move In My Direction - (single remix)

PROMO RELEASE

A 4-track album sampler (Catalogue Number: CDAG003CDP) was made available for promotional purposes in July 2005 in the UK. The four tracks on this sampler were: "Move In My Direction", "Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango)", "Love Bite" and "Waterfall".

2005 REVIEWS

Bananarama were never like today’s stage-school wannabe girl groups. It wasn’t about the money or the fame; it was about the sheer hell of it all. Half a dozen of your mates are probably better singers than Sara or Keren ever were. And their stage performances always suggested more time spent with the publican than their choreographer. But the Nanas always had the one thing that no amount of hard work and dedication ever managed to buy the Jenny Frosts of this world: tremendous personality. That, coupled with an undervalued ability to knock off great pop songs (Venus, Love In The First Degree, Robert De Niro’s Waiting), made the Nanas the most successful girl group in chart history before Geri and Co came along to spice up our lives.
Still, a nagging doubt remains that the world doesn’t really need a new Bananarama album in 2005. It’s almost a quarter of a century since the Nanas enjoyed their first hit single and twelve years since they last released an album of new songs in the UK. Drama takes this doubt, grabs it by the scruff of its neck and gives it, ooh, a damn good talking to at the very least. Recent single Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango) is a brilliant slice of shimmering electrodisco; were there a Brit Award for the best vocodered delivery of the lyric “Devil’s in your eyes and he’s looking at me”, Sara (or Keren) would be a dead-cert winner come February. Likewise, Feel For You and Your Love Is Like A Drug both sound exactly as Bananarama should in the third millennium: 25% handbag, 25% gay and 50% stonking great chorus. Inevitably there’s also one absolute horror: even Madonna couldn’t get away with calling a song Don’t Step On My Groove, especially not one that sounds like a Steps B-side from 1998.
So, Bananarama, it’s great to have you back. Your interviews are a joy to behold; you look damn good and you’re still wonderfully untainted by desperation. And, crucially, there’s enough on Drama to suggest that you’ll still be miming (badly) and dancing (shakily) in front of half a dozen oiled-up hunks for a good while yet. 7 stars out of 10.
- Nick Levin, TeenToday

Nigh on 20 years after their last hit, Bananarama - the former trio now down to duo Sara Dullin and Keren Woodward - release their long-awaited comeback album. Well, presumably someone's been waiting a long time for it, and they've made all this effort to comeback after all, so...
Surprise surprise, the patience will have paid off, more or less, for when all's said, done and listened to Drama is actually not a bad record. Thoroughly modern pop, replete with breathless vocals, minor key meanderings and more hooks than a fishing festival could make this a comeback to be proud of.
Stand out tracks include Waterfall, Don't Step On My Groove - reminiscent of many an original Bananarama hit - and the trancey Feel For You.
Highlights for fans wanting to get stuck back into the old material will doubtless be the Solasso Mix of Really Saying Something and the Marc Almond Hi NRG Showgirl's Remix of their 1986 hit, the Stock Aitken & Waterman-produced Venus.
- Virgin

The subject of a million mid-30s men’s old teenage fantasies return with an album that's hard to dislike. Bananarama's orginal appeal lay in their pop sensibilities and a ' look' that could have been created by any teenage girl in a trip to Miss Selfridge. But as they have matured into delectable Yummy Mummies, so has their original audience. Songs from this collection will still be sung into hairbrushes but before dinner parties rather than when attempting to sneak into discotheques. It's all foot-tappingly good stuff but eerily reminiscent of the many later groups influenced by the band. Shades of Atomic Kitten and others of that ilk inevitably creep in but it would be churlish to dwell on this rather than praise what is a perfectly good pop record.
- James Bentley, Manchester Online

However much you may think they have, Bananarama have never really gone away. Band members have certainly come and gone since their first hit way back in 1983, but those cheeky girls have constantly been producing albums ever since. Okay, so they disappeared into the commercial pop wilderness for a while, but the trio that’s now a duo are back. They’re in from the cold, all the drama is over and they’re all the better for it!
Drama is Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward’s ninth studio produced album and it’s a winner. Whilst most of the grooves are firmly rooted in funky disco, this amazingly produced album enjoys its uplifting house and electro influences too.
One of this summer’s massive hits was ‘Move In My Direction’, which gave us a hint of what to expect from their new album. Then the next single, ‘Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)’, charted and has become a great radio hit - we love it here at GaydarRadio! The tracks prove that our disco divas have come out of the dark and into the light and they’ve certainly found their niche in the beats of funky uplifting pop music.
‘Don’t Step In My Groove’, ‘I Love the Way’ and ‘Your Love is a Drug’ are instant foot tapping dance hits. Picture if you can, me at my desk, bent double over a hot computer. I have donned a pair of headphones and I am, in my head, swaying and mouthing softly to the sounds of Drama. Next thing I know I’m being prodded by a colleague and asked to, “Keep the noise down!”
How rude, but it just goes to show how much I was enjoying myself with the girls – something I don’t say very often.
The only part of the album I was unsure about were the remixes of ‘Venus’ (Marc Almonds Hi Nrg Showgirls Mix) and ‘Really Saying Something’ (Solasso Mix). Whilst it is great to hear these tracks again, perhaps it would have been better to write two new songs instead?
There are many layers to this Banana that you can happily peel back while listening to it. Plus, I have to say that I really enjoyed getting my teeth into it and have found the eclectic mix of pop, dance and electro music really works.
I wish the girls the best of luck and hope the record company put their full weight behind this great pop album - the dynamic duo deserves it! 4 out of 5 stars.
- Rainbow Network

If they entered a TV talent show today, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin would probably be one of the auditions aired early on, strictly for laughs. Two older women with decidedly ordinary voices fronting a pop duo? You can feel Cowell sharpening his claws for the rejection. This, I'd submit is why you've got to love Bananarama. No committee could have dreamed them up. Had they been market-researched prior to their success as the only real girl-group of the 80s, the public would have rejected them. Which goes to show we don't always know what we want until we get it. Then, and now, there's something instantly likeable about Bananarama. They're having a laugh, take it or leave it. They're not desperate, and never look like they're trying too hard. There are no vocal histrionics. Indeed on their best records, they sound like they've just woken up and are singing the lyrics, sleepily, from an autocue -something that's used to great effect here on the languid, lovely Waterfall. Mostly assembled in Sweden with the prolific Murlyn crew, this comeback is quality, polished pop with just a touch of knowing camp: tracks like Love Bite and Move in My Direction can stand on equal footing with newer models like Girls Aloud. For old fans, Marc Almond contributed an enjoyable hi-NRG remix of Venus and there's a sassy Solasso rewoeking of the '80s hit Really Saying Something. It's good to have you back ladies."
- Sheryl Garrant, The Word

Bananarama were always a mildly masochistic prospect: so bad they were good, with their rubbish choreography, astonishingly thin vocals and overall look of just having got out of bed, they were actually quite charming in their own way, and a million miles from their contrived progeny of the Sugar and Spice variety. Drama has absolutely none of the imperfections of a Shy Boy; rather the seemingly ageless Sarah and Keren have been reinvented into a smart, tight and very serviceable dance act. Forget the formulaic first single "Move in My Direction", the weakest track here, and tune in instead to the electro-wobble of Look on the Floor, Love Bite, Rules of Attraction, or the Goldfrappesque Waterfall. Superfluous remixes of Venus and Really Saying Something end the set on a hesitant note. 3 out of 5.
- David Buckley, Mojo Magazine

After a lengthy absence Bananarama return and it's very much the same formula that made the girls such a successful group in the 80s. Opening track Move In My Direction soon puts young pretenders like Girls Aloud firmly in their place and it's just like the Nanas have never been away. Feel For You matches anything Madonna can do and Don't Step On My Groove has all the sassiness of an on-form Kylie. The two bonus tracks -- remixes of Venus and Really Saying Something -- tarnish what is otherwise a perfect piece of harmless pop.
- Graham Scaife, This Is Bradford

With new material being thin on the ground over the past decade, it would be fair to say the Nana's had become something of an iconic afterthought of a time when pop music was once ace. Then came the genius 'Move in my Direction', which restored our faith in the girls' ability, even without Stock Aitken & Waterman. The question now is can they really deliver an album's worth of such gems without reheating past glories? You bet they can, and you'll be pleased to know that Drama is a 13 track modern masterpiece, chocker-block with dirty pop anthems about good times, love crimes and bad boys. Sexual innuendos are aplenty througout the new single 'Look On The Floor' ('I know it's so hard cos I shiver') and the dreamy electro-ballad 'Waterfall' ('It's like a waterfall come down'), while a rarely see sensitive side shines through on the summery 'Middle of Nowhere'. Elsewhere, it's party time, with future dancefloor classics such as the I Feel Love-esque 'Love Bite' and disco-fuelled 'Don't Step On My Groove', proving that when it comes to unashamed feel-good pop, Banananrama are still a force to be reckoned with. 3.5 out of 5.
- Ian Usher, Attitude

The grandes dames of deadpan Eighties pop are back, back, back with a classy dose of disco fromage, electro frippery, and a Hi-NRG remix of 'Venus'. For pop connoisseurs to pick at.
- Observer Music Monthly

One of the first things that crosses your mind when you think of Bananarama is their mid-80's smash, Venus, so it's a disappointment to find a new and rather innadequate version included on their come-back album, Drama (A&G Records). Someone really should've told them about the hundreds of folk out there who are murdering karaoke versions of their songs without the ladies adding their own names to the list. But, pulling in our claws for a moment, the rest of the album can be neatly summed-up as a thrilling alcopop cocktail mixing the best in 21st century pop - Dannii, Girls Aloud, Rachel Stevens, Sugababes etc - with a hefty serving of the Nana's own greatest moments. The first single, Move In My Direction, is a suitable introduction to this pure-pop trip, followed by other gems such as Love Bite and Your Love Is Like A Drug. All in all, not a dramarama. Welcome back, girls.
- Gay Times

The 80s most famous girl group are back with their first album in years. This time round it's just Sarah and Keren who are fronting the band, who were the first to introduce girl power to pop. This album oozes electro pop heading in a Kylie direction but not quite as good as the Aussie songbird's offerings. Dance tracks to listen out for include Feel For You, Don't Step on My Groove and I Love The Way, and there's a Meditternean feel to Middle of Nowhere. Bananarama fans will also be pleased to hear there's a very saucy remix of Venus and Really Saying Something, too.
- The Birmingham Post

PRESS RELEASE

Note: Original release date of 24 October 2005 was subsequently changed to 7 November 2005.

Monday 24th October sees the release of "Drama", the new album from the Queens of Hedonism themselves Bananarama. Packed with pop fuelled tales of lust, madness, mayhem, passion filled dancefloors and disco insanity, "Drama" is a luscious mix of electro beats, happy house, boogie nights and even the occasional ballad.

With co-writing and production credits from the likes of Pop Gods Brian Higgins (Sugababes, Girls Aloud), Ian Masterson (Dannii Minogue) and Korbi and Blackcell from the Murlyn Camp, most of "Drama" was mixed by ubermixer Jeremy Wheatley, who has also worked with the likes of Kylie, Duran Duran and Goldfrapp.

"Drama" is released on Monday October 24th on A&G Records on CD and download. "Drama" will also be released in Japan on Pony Canyon on October 19th.

Monday 7th November sees the release of "Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango)", second single taken from "Drama". The cd will feature remixes from Yomanda Angel City, Solasso and Soulseekers. The video was shot yesterday (Thursday 15th September) by Tim Royes, who has directed videos for Rachel Stevens, Texas, Green Day and has won an MTV award for editing.

"Drama" is released on Monday October 24th on A&G Records on CD and download. Totally modern, totally pop, totally Bananarama!

Check out an earlier press release on the A&G website here

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