#70
March 1 1985
Katrina and the Waves
Katrina and the Waves
Genre: Pop Rock
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Do You Want Crying
Que Te Quiero
Walking on Sunshine
Mexico
This is Katrina and the Waves. Not Katrina and the Waves 2, which was released last year. And which we missed. This album is a redux of the first album which was self released in Canada only.
Got all that?
Great.
This album opens with the Paisley “Red Wine and Whiskey” and I’m immediately reminded of The Bangles. And that’s a very good thing because later in the record, the original version of “Going Down to Liverpool” shows up and, it’s great, but it’s impossible to get The Bangles’ version out of my head, so it pales in comparison.
Could we all just take a second and call “Walking on Sunshine” what it is, which is the best Supremes song the Supremes never recorded. That’s all Motown right there. Proving that Berry Gordy knew what the fuck he was doing.
But.
What’s the secret behind this record? Robyn Hitchcock connection. Not Robyn. But the Rhythm Guitarist for his old band, Soft Boys, Kimberley Rew, who wrote all the tracks here. A lot like the drummer for A Drop in the Gray, whose songs were never recorded by them, but he would go on to massive success as a writer.
Rew knows how to craft a hit. In fact, i wonder how much he had to do with how very very good those Soft Boys records were, given how annoying Hitchcock was on his own until he put together another band. And Vince De La Cruz is also an excellent songwriter (he wrote “Do You Want Crying” and the excellent “Mexico”).
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