Produced by Kristy Music Ltd (Pascal Caubet and Florent Enfer)
1.If
2.Starz
3.What You Gonna Do
4.Cruel Summer
5.Crazy
6.Boom
7.Robert de Niro's Waiting
8.Careless Whisper
9.Sleep
10.I Heard A Rumour
11.Got A Thing For You
12.Venus
Oh dear. It had been six years since the last official studio album from Bananarama (that being "UltraViolet" which, I'm sure I don't have to remind disgruntled fans, wasn't even released in the girls' home country)!
Along the way, we had been tempted with dodgy, unofficial "Greatest Hits" compilations, rumours galore, demo tracks on the internet and two official new recordings in compilation albums in the form of "Waterloo" for "A Song For Eurotrash" in 1998 and "Robert de Niro's Waiting 2000" in, well, early 2000 for "G.A.Y." ... but this - "Exotica"! - was different. "It would be a studio album of entirely new material! It would mark a huge comeback!" ... or so we thought, as we waited with bated breath.
The results proved disappointing. Released only in France (Sara and Keren chose to work with French producers on this album because they felt like they wanted a change of direction and the connection was then made through some mutual friends), "Exotica" - picked out of a long list of names suggested by Bananarama and was the only one their French team felt would work in the French market - was a commercial disappointment. In addition, of the 12 tracks, 4 were simply re-recordings of past glories (although admittedly, the new version of "Cruel Summer" - which had new additional lyrics - is quite a stomper and was the one used when the girls performed the song for their 20th Anniversary gig in the UK in 2002). Two promo singles were released off this album in France, "Careless Whisper" and "If" (only "Careless Whisper" had a video), and sadly, these failed to ignite on the singles chart as well. Any plans for a great Bananarama resurgence across continental Europe, into UK and then across the Atlantic to the US were, well, clearly not going to happen.
The quality of the album is clearly to blame. There are some good tracks, like the disco-dancey "If" and the ballad "Crazy" which are solid pop songs and the dark, almost industrial-sounding "What You Gonna Do" is a pleasant surprise but many of the other songs lack personality and were not helped by the cheesy sniff of retro in the inclusion of "I Heard A Rumour" and "Venus", no matter how remixed they were, and their electro-bleepy cover of 80's standard "Careless Whisper" (originally by Wham! which, of course, consisted of one Andrew Ridgeley who had now been Keren's partner for 10 years). Although Keren and Sara played with their vocals with all kinds of interesting harmonies and layers which gave the album some texture, ultimately the album suffered from odd production decisions. This is most obvious on "Sleep" and "Boom", two songs that were very different (and very good) in their original form on the girls' demo album - which was circulated on the internet in 1999 - and which were, quite honestly, massacred on the "Exotica" album.
What was particularly frustrating for fans was that the songwriting from Sara and Keren (and Bassey, Sara's partner) was top-notch - certainly a marked improvement over the "Ultra Violet" days; these were songs not just tracks - and the girls' voices sounded stronger than ever. Rather tellingly, Sara and Keren in an interview in 2002 said that they themselves were unhappy with the album, that it didn't turn out like they had expected it would and that it was a total "nightmare". Apparently, this remark was also prompted because of the lack of support from the record label who basically gave up on the album and didn't really invest in promotion.
France Top 200 Album Chart: 84-78-95-108-147
Careless Whisper If
Probably not: While the inaptly titled album (nothing here suggests lounge music) sidesteps the anonymous techno of 1996’s Ultra Violet, nearly half the disc is lost to gratuitous remakes. True, covers are staples of the ’Nana catalog—nearly all of their albums have one—and revisiting Wham!’s classic cheeseball “Careless Whisper” as the first single was an intriguing injoke, since Woodward’s longtime companion happens to be George Michael’s ex-partner, Andrew Ridgeley. In practice, however, inert singing and jerky rhythms flatten the song into tepid karaoke. Similarly, updates of four of Bananarama’s biggest hits yield mixed results: A kicky, Latinized “Cruel Summer” beats merry hell out of Ace of Base’s flavorless version, but a Daft Punk style remix merely makes “I Heard a Rumour” sound retro twice over.
Of greater interest is the new material, starting with up-tempo thumpers “If” and “Starz,” which pack enough bass and beats to bum-rush the clubs if given the chance. Better still are the slow tunes—”What You Gonna Do” recalls Garbage’s moodier tracks, and “Got a Thing For You” layers breathy boudoir vocals over itchy electro-funk.
Unfortunately, the fresh songs serve only to balance out the stale ones on Exotica, leaving us with a decent Bananarama EP and little more. Woodward and Dallin haven’t lost their spunky charm after 20 years in the business, but being packaged as a nostalgia act isn’t going to help them make up for lost time.
- Rob Chin, Advocate, 2001
