The Bangles

The seeds of commercial acceptance were being sown at this point. In retrospect, the Bangles did a good job of transferring their underground roots into something viable. Despite how you may feel about "Walk Like An Egyptian," the band succeeds on Prince's "Manic Monday" and Big Star's "September Gurls."

The 1984 debut of Los Angeles' Bangles, All Over the Place, was a poprock formalist's wet
dream. For thirty minutes and eleven songs, the listener was dizzied by a frighteningly
complete compendlum of the greatest bits from the genre's greatest hits – quintessentially
scruffy acoustic and electric guitar sounds, Brit-pop chord voicings, Irresistible
progressions and turnarounds and cool little riffettes right out of a crackly car r... More >

Right, they're maturing into a less derivative pop synthesis, as if that means sh*t these days. Like the Raspberries before them, they're brilliant when they emulate the Beatles and mature popsters when they don't. And for what it's worth, the four most striking tunes here are the four nonoriginals--every one, for what it's worth, written by a guy. (Grade - B)