Retro Spins: Kajagoogoo - White Feathers



Kajagoogoo
White Feathers
1983

Have you heard Kajagoogoo's White Feathers album from April 1983? Yeah, you don't need to hear Kajagoogoo's White Feathers album. Too Shy seems to be the best the band could do. The album...Well, it kind of stinks. To the point that it is right on the cusp of being annoying background noise.

The band found major success with their one hit wonder as early as May of 1983 when it hit the charts at number eighty-one. From there it climbed all the way up to number five before heading back down to oblivion. Hang On Now, the eighth song from the album somehow managed to chart in August of that same year, but was gone the following week. Even though I had just heard the album I had to go back and find out just how this second song made its way to number eighty-nine and quite honestly I have no clue. It's not good.

The album's biggest problem is that it's just bland. It plays out in the same tempo from start to finish never deviating from this. It's as if the drummer only knew one beat and stuck with it for all thirty-five minutes. I can picture him in the studio just beating the drum to the same beat over and over and telling the rest of the band, "Go ahead and fill in the gaps whenever something comes to you. I'll just keep playing until then."

What's interesting to note is that it's actually the only Kajagoogo album with lead singer Limahl. The band fired him prior to releasing their follow up album in 1984 stating he was an egomaniac and had become increasing difficult to work with. Despite this, as the story usually goes, the band eventually reunited (in 2008) and ran a series of successful concerts - Probably singing Too Shy over and over for two hours straight before calling it a night (picture the scene in The Wedding Singer where George keeps singing "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"). Oh well, for what it's worth, the band appears to have some form of following. I'm just not one of those people. 

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