Reduced from a trio when Martin Jackson left during the sessions for what would become Kaleidoscope World, Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell would continue on as a due for the remainder of Swing Out Sister's tenure. Upon its release, it would become an instant success in the UK, cracking the top ten.
The album takes a more contemporary approach, drawing inspiration from the easy listening stylings of Burt Bacharach. This is enriched with the incorporation of orchestration, overshadowing the previously released It's Better To Travel (1987) which was heavily driven by synthesizers.
Their UK success was not echoed in the US, where the album failed to chart. Further, their single, Waiting Game, would stall out at number eighty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100. However, being the 80's, the album did have multiple music videos, all of which were released on the companion VHS, Video EP (1990).
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Listening to the album, I feel like it could easily be the soundtrack to a James Bond film from the sixties. I suppose being heavily influenced as noted above, that does make sense. However, overall, it doesn't work, not for me anyway. It's a relatively dull album with no hits worth getting excited about. Even with the aforementioned Waiting Game drawing heavily from their previous hit, Breakout, it's not enough to salvage the track.
Overall, it's an okay listening experience, though perhaps a bit boring. It certainly doesn't leave me want to hear more from the group, and I'm okay with that. Especially considering going into it all, I wasn't necessarily a fan to begin with.
What I will say is that the song Masquerade was somewhat of a decent standout. If it was an instrumental track, it would have been a killer, but it somewhat goes downhill once Drewery's vocals kick in.
As for Swing Out Sister, they went on to release far more albums than I would have expected. Eight between 1992 and 2017 to be exact. However, none of their albums have charted since 1992's Get in Touch With Yourself, which was also their last album to produce a Billboard Hot 100 hit, Am I The Same Girl, which peaked at forty-five. While they aren't releasing studio albums, they do remain active, touring periodically.
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