The Banderas - Ripe (Expanded Edition) 

After the demise of The Communards, backing vocalist Caroline Buckley and violinist/keyboardist Sally Herbert decided to continue working together and formed The Banderas.  Although the band ended up being short-lived, they did release a really great album in Ripe, which contained the hit song “This Is Your Life” that hit Number 16 on the UK Singles Chart and 34 on the US Dance Charts and was produced by the legendary Stephen Hague.  Opening the disc is the aforementioned hit single, a very infectious dance tune that features both Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner and also samples Grace Jones’ “Crack Attack”.  Next up is “The Comfort Of Faith”, another track with a dance beat and a bit of a Pet Shop Boys vibe. “May This Be Your Last Sorrow” finds them shifting gears quite a bit, drawing you in with it’s hypnotic slowed down beat and Buckley’s powerful vocals, resulting in an absolutely gorgeous song that to me is by far the best cut here.  The pace picks back up with “First Hand”, another upbeat electronic dance tune with a bit of a funk beat, “Why Aren’t You In Love With Me”, which opens with some nice strings and is a soulful dance tune that’s actually got a bit of a disco feel to it (Somerville contributes backing vocals on this track) and “She Sells”, which at times reminds me a bit of Pet Shop Boys crossed with Fine Young Cannibals. While the next cut “Too Good” is another standout with a soulful, mellow groove and an really nice beat, “Don’t Let That Man” is a pretty straightforward dance tune that is probably the weakest cut here.  Thankfully they get right back on track with “It’s Written All Over My Face”, which starts with a nice acoustic guitar leading into a synth heavy tune that has an almost ethereal feel to it, but with a laid-back dance beat.  Album closer “Never Too Late” is a very sparse track with Buckley singing over very subdued synths and percussion.  Closing out the disc are five bonus tracks consisting of a couple 7” versions of album tracks, a remix of “This Is Your Life” and two B-sides. The first B-side is “Bide Your Time”, a beautiful laid-back ballad driven by piano with a string quartet and towards the end a jazzy trumpet solo.  In a perfect world this song would not only have been delegated to being a B-side, it would have been another hit single.  “Nice To Know” is the other B-side and while it’s not as good, it is a catchy, slow-burning dance cut.  Rounding things out on disc two is a collection of remixes, six of which have never been released on CD before now, from the likes of Apollo 440, Joe T Vannelli and a couple of really great ones from Less Stress.  Also included is a CD booklet with commentaries on all the tracks from Sally and Caroline and an interview with them conducted by Somerville.  Unfortunately, due to less than stellar sales of the singles that followed “This Is Your Life”, the label lost interest in the band and Ripe was the beginning and the end, which is a real shame as you can see from the diversity here that there was a lot more to them than a dance tune and it would have been nice to see where they went from here. 

(90/9)