WEE JIMMY SOMERVILLE AND THE BOYS STILL SING IT UP A STORM! (Very Best Of Jimmy Somerville: Bronski Beat And The Communards - Jimmy Somerville)

Member Name: totalserenity

Product:	Very Best Of Jimmy Somerville: Bronski Beat And The Communards - Jimmy Somerville
Date:	25/03/09 (330 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A FANTASTIC PIECE OF POP HISTORY WITH STRONG GAY PRIDE...

Disadvantages: NONE, UNLESS IT'S NOT YOUR TYPE OF MUSIC OF COURSE.

Now I don't profess to being some mad pop music expert on here; but I do know what I grew up with, and I do know what I like.
And my word I have always liked wee Jimmy Somerville and his fabulously high-pitched vocal chords!

This album incorporates my youth, my 80's era, 'my' time when I was actually there - witnessing the great era of the synthesised electro-pop, indie rock, outspokenly gay culture, wildly melodic noise, and musical in-your-face attitiude!

'The Very Best of JIMMY SOMERVILLE Bronski Beat and The Communards' CD cover screamed out to me as I strolled past the musical section of my local Morrisons about three weeks ago now.
'Look at me, want me, buy me' the beguiling red cover emblazoned with golden writing beneath a golden star, beseeched me. I stopped, did a double take and nudged my trolley ever nearer to that tempting little plastic case. Well what harm could it do to look I innocently figured?
Hmm, what harm indeed!

Turning the case over, my eyes taking a slow stroll down the records list I knew I had a problem on my parental hands. You see dear dooyoo'ers I'm a single mum, and as such live on a shoe-string budget most of the time.
When I was married a little frivolity like a new CD was not an issue; but nowadays it is classed as a luxury item - except for my Gothy teenage daughter of course, when it becomes a life or death issue on one of her rock bands releasing a new album. *Sigh*.

£3.95? £3.95! Never!
Not believing my eyes at such a fantastic price for some of the most iconic decade of hits to adorn the charts, I knew I had a dirty choice to make. Sunday roast OR a complete non-essential indulgence on Mum's part.

Beans on toast it was then...

Gothy's eyes rolled as I blathered on about how important The Communards were to the music of the time; what a fantastic falsetto voice the wonderful Mr Somerville had, and so on, as I drooled over my soon-to-be acquisition all the way round the supermarket.

Okay, I was a tad over-excited but still - '£3.95'...come on!

As soon as we hit the car out went Gothzilla's 'Screamo' (if you don't know what the hell that is, well let's just say consider yourself fortunate...), and in popped my pretty red and gold starred CD. Ahh...
Now if there were any reports of electro-magnetic interference emanating from Sheffield's busy 'Parkway' dual carriage way, well let's just say my singing voice was hitting an all-time high on that particular journey home.
'And' for a very pleasant change my beloved teenager practically fell out of the car with relief, instead of me, folks!

The fantastic list of Jimmy and his two bands all-time hits are as follows:

1. Smalltown Boy

2. Don't Leave Me This Way

3. Why?

4. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

5. Disenchanted

6. Never Can Say Goodbye

7. So Cold The Night

8. To Love Somebody

9. There's More To Love (Than Boy Meets Girl)

10. Comment Te Dire Adieu

11. You Are My World

12. I Feel Love/Johnny Remember Me

12. Tomorrow

14. Hurt so Good

15. Read My Lips (Enough Is Enough)

16. For A Friend

17. Ain't Necessarily So

Fantastic stuff from a fantastic era!

Inside the CD's front cover there's a little leaflet outlining an interview in 2001 (the album's original release date), with the magical Mr Somerville and his views on his career spanning a prolific decade with both his bands; their cover records such as Don't Leave Me This way, and his outspokenly political views on homosexuality and 'trashy pop' as he called some of the music of his time.

For me personally this album brought back a myriad of memories of such a wonderful time. First boyfriends; the club scene that was absolutely hugely vibrant at that time, my beloved Erasure who were as giant as Jimmy's name at the time - and still going strong today.

Loving gay music the way I always have, and having the fantastic fortune of seeing Jimmy and The Communards live in the mid-eighties in my home city of Sheffield - and to this day, I have never been to a concert quite as alive, energetic, invigorating, contentious, true to itself, as real as that was. Thus these songs for me are a wonderful, heart-lifting, voice-belting reminder of happy days gone by - and hopefully many more still to come.

I can heartily recommend this CD for anyone who loves this genre of music, some call it indie rock, and some call it pop...but no matter what you can't help but bop along to the beat!

Haven't stopped listening to it since...until I found Ultrabeat's Greatest Hits on offer too.

...Oh no, here we go again!

Summary: WORTH EVERY LAST PENNY - EVEN WITH GOTHY'S TIN OF BEANS THROWN IN FOR GOOD MEASURE!