Music Reviews: Boxing Up the Bangles, plus ‘Rock the Plaza’ and Kim Wilson’s ‘Slow Burn’

Music Reviews: Boxing Up the Bangles, plus Rock the Plaza and Kim Wilson’s Slow Burn

It’s about time we had a box set from the Bangles, whose well-hooked, harmony-drenched tunes provided some of the brightest moments on Top 40 radio in the 1980s. Emerging from the West Coast’s Paisley Underground movement, the group featured four strong vocalists (especially Susanna Hoffs) and consistently attractive material that evidenced a love of seminal garage rock, folk rock, and pop. (Hoffs further underscored those roots in Under the Covers, her four-album collaboration with Matthew Sweet, which includes smart reinterpretations of hits and deep cuts from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.)

Watching the Sky, which shares the title of a song on Everything, the quartet’s third LP, is a four-CD set that collects their most important work.

The anthology devotes its first disc to the excellent but relatively little-known All Over the Place, the group’s first full-length LP. Though that 1984 album didn’t sell well, it should have: all the elements that fueled the Bangles’ later smashes are evident on originals such as “James” and “Hero Takes a Fall.” Also fine is a cover of “Going Down to Liverpool,” which was written by Kimberley Rew, a member of Katrina and the Waves and composer of that group’s big hit, “Walking on Sunshine.” Bonus cuts in Watching the Sky’s version of the album include a single edit of “Going Down to Liverpool,” a remix of “Hero Takes a Fall,” and a spirited cover of the Grass Roots’ Byrds-like rocker, “Where Were You When I Needed You.”

The box set’s second CD contains the Bangles’ 1986 breakthrough sophomore album, the triple-platinum Different Light. Band members wrote or co-wrote most of its songs, but the album’s several hits are mostly covers.

The set opens with “Manic Monday,” a No. 2 single. Sung by Hoffs and written by Prince (under the pseudonym “Christopher”), it tells of a woman who is late for work because she stayed up too late partying in bed with her boyfriend. Also here are Liam Sternberg’s “Walk Like an Egyptian,” a novelty number that gave the Bangles a chart-topper; Jules Shear’s catchy “If She Knew What She Wants,” which features Hoffs and made it to No. 29; Alex Chilton’s “September Gurls,” with lead vocals by bassist Michael Steele; and “Walking Down Your Street,” a No. 11 hit featuring Hoffs, who penned the number with songwriter Louis Gutierrez and Different Light producer David Kahne. Watching the Sky expands the LP by adding four bonus cuts, including a version of “Manic Monday” that’s nearly 50 percent longer than the original.

Next up in the box is Everything, the group’s third LP, which was another bestseller, though not quite as commercially successful as its predecessor. It’s hard to see why, since this album’s songs, which were all written or co-written by the group’s members, are at least as infectious and well-honed as the ones on Different Light. Moreover, they include two major hit singles for which Hoffs provided lead vocals: “In Your Room,” which reached No. 5 on Billboard‘s Hot 100, and “Eternal Flame,” a chart-topping romantic ballad. Several of the other songs are just as compelling, among them “Glitter Years” and “Complicated Girl,” both of which prove musically redolent of “If She Knew What She Wants” and “Manic Monday.”

While the box’s version of Everything includes no bonus numbers, a fourth disc delivers nothing but. Featuring material from throughout the 1980s, it serves up four versions of the Bangles’ hard-rocking cover of Paul Simon’s “Hazy Shade of Winter,” a non-album No. 2 single that was used in the film Less Than Zero. Also here are a cappella and extended readings of “Walk Like an Egyptian”; remixed, extended, and instrumental versions of “In Your Room”; a 14-minute medley of the group’s biggest hits; and 10 other tracks.

Completists might complain that the box isn’t, well, complete. It’s missing two reunion albums, 2003’s Doll Revolution and 2011’s Sweetheart of the Sun, as well as portions of Ladies and Gentlemen…The Bangles!, a 2014 compilation of early material whose highlights include covers of the Turtles’ “Outside Chance” and Love’s “7 & 7 Is.” Most people should find the box sufficient, though, and the other LPs remain available separately for anyone who wants more.

Also Noteworthy

Various artists, Rock the Plaza. This recording preserves a November 2022 concert held to raise funds for the restoration of Palm Springs, California’s historic Plaza Theatre. Like many multi-artist albums, it’s stylistically diverse and a bit uneven.

Nine of the 16 cuts feature Alice Cooper or Paul Rodgers. Cooper delivers a cover of the Who’s “My Generation,” plus his own “No More Mister Nice Guy,” “Under My Wheels,” and “School’s Out,” the last of these in a medley with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Rodgers, who served as the vocalist for Bad Company and Free, sings the former group’s “Can’t Get Enough” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” as well as the latter band’s “All Right Now” and a cover of Sam and Dave’s “I Thank You.”

Those performances have their moments, but, to these ears, one of the best tracks is a cover of the exuberant “Right Down the Line.” That’s arguably the best Gerry Rafferty number not named “Baker Street,” and it garners a laudable performance here by Joshua Homme, singer and guitarist for Queens of the Stone Age. Another standout is a reverent reading of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe,” by former Queen guitarist Brian May, who organized the Plaza fundraiser, and Australian guitarist, singer, and songwriter Orianthi.

Kim Wilson, Slow Burn. Singer and harmonica player Kim Wilson founded the Fabulous Thunderbirds with Jimmie Vaughan more than 50 years ago, and the group is still going strong, though Wilson is the only remaining original member. Meanwhile, he has found time to guest on dozens of other albums and issue nine excellent solo LPs.

The latest of those delivers a dozen blues-rock winners, all culled from five live-in-the-studio sessions in 2014 and 2020. Wilson’s backup bands on these dates feature three luminous artists who are no longer with us: drummer Richard Innes, singer and drummer Larry Taylor, and keyboardist and singer Barrelhouse Chuck.

The selections, none of which have been previously released, include four originals plus covers of songs by assorted blues giants. It’s a diverse set that shows off Wilson’s versatility. Highlights include B.B. King’s classic “Sweet Little Angel,” which incorporates a bit of falsetto; Otis Rush’s “So Many Roads,” where Wilson’s harp playing shines, and Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Keep Our Business to Yourself,” which features mesmerizing guitar work.