Search - Bangles :: All Over the Place

Decent Debut but Overated

Robert G. Daugherty | Los Angeles, CA | 02/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"All of the reviews for this album seem to say the exactly the same thing: That "All Over the Place" is the Bangles best album, presumably before they "sold out". Well, that's just plain wrong. The Bangles, not unlike their namesakes, The Beatles, evolved. They got better with each successive album. "Different Light" was a vast improvement on this, their debut, and "Everything" topped them both. This evolution continues to this day. "Doll Revolution" is better than all three of the 80's albums combined.



The Bangles are one of my all-time favorite groups. I loved seeing Susanna Hoffs on the Tonight Show with Joan Rivers. Joan asked Susanna what her musical influences were. Susanna had the all-time greatest answer! She said: "The Three B's. Beatles, Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield!" GREAT ANSWER! Joan seemed completely baffled! I think Joan had heard of the Beatles but you could tell she had no idea who the other two groups were!



Funny."

Better than Van Halen

Andrew Lochart | San Francisco, CA, USA | 02/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pop quiz: Name the L.A. area band with sibling guitarist and drummer, a bassist named Michael, and pouty prima dona lead singer. If you said Van Halen, you win, and were probably rockin' out to "Jump" the same year that our quiz's other correct answer, The Bangles, released their gem of a debut.



Whether you call their music "paisley underground" (ugh), pop, power pop, girl group, or just rock & roll, The Bangles delivered a wonderful album of up-tempo, jangly rock that sounded like the Go-Go's covering the Byrds (or the Pandoras with a lot less paisley). "All Over The Place" was their purest album, before they overtly sought fame and fortune on their next two albums by mainstreaming their sound.



Bonus hypothesis: while I can't prove it, I think the Smithereens were singing about Michael Steele in "Behind The Wall of Sleep":



"She had hair like Jeanie Shrimpton back in 1965.

She had legs that never ended; I was halfway paralyzed.

She was tall and cool and pretty and she dressed as black as coal.

...

Well, she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band.

And she stood just like Bill Wyman. Now I am her biggest fan."



Now I ask you, who else could it be?



A great album from the most recent hurrah of power pop, the early 1980's. Five stars."