Reviewed by Sheffield Chastain
Released: 1981 Blades Bounce Music Genre: Power Ska Pop Rating: 3.55 out of 5 Highlights: Please Say Yes Hang Around Here Vera Requisite 80’s cover: Time Won’t Let Me - The Outsiders 1966 hit if sung through the filter of The Rembrandts and played as if it were a ska-pop ditty. Did we need it? No. But it’s short and sweet and inoffensive. No harm, no foul. There are a couple of really good power pop songs on this brief album. It’s a short one - 7 songs - and one could argue this is really an EP, though there is no indication anyone ever thought it as such. The first three tracks had me bouncing, which the album title promised. It’s nice when something like that delivers. Please Say Yes is a super bouncy power pop jangly treat with requisite harmonies, peppy lead guitar licks and sweet harmonica interludes (a la The Romantics). Hang Around Here keeps it going with the same formula, though perhaps a little less focused and tending toward the Power Ska Pop that is evident throughout. Vera chugga-chuggas along beautifully squeezing in a cool 15 second rockified lead guitar lick that feels just right - short and sweet - like many of the songs on Bounce Music. There is scant information on these guys (the album was recorded in Los Angeles, so perhaps they were an LA outfit), and by all indications they were one and done. Too bad. The first three tracks are evidence of some nice power pop chops and surely Blades would have grown into something special had they stuck with it. Alas, the world will never know. For now, check out those first three tracks and bounce along!!
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