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4.5 stars Ave. rating: 4.5 from 16 votes.
 


Pop Life is the fifth Bananarama album, and the first issued after the triple platinum Greatest Hits Collection. It is also the first and only album to include vocals by replacement vocalist Jacquie O'Sullivan, and penultimate UK album. The other attribute of this album is that it was also a departure from Bananarama's most successful production collaborators - Stock Aitken Waterman - to friend and indie producer, Youth.

The album spawned three hit singles Only Your Love, Preacher Man and Long Train Running and provided Bananarama with some long overdue credit. The fourth single Tripping On Your Love met with an unjustly fate, scarcely sulking into the Top 80 singles in UK - its failure compouned by the decimation of Bananarama's infrastructure with the departure of Hillary Shaw, and then the removal of Jacquie O'Sullivan from the band, and then finally by Sara Dallin's pregnancy. The album sold poorly compared to its predecessors and Bananarama had one more album to record to complete their contract with London Records which ultimately led to being bullied into recording the Please Yourself album.

The CD is printed with two bonus tracks - Heartless and Preacher Man (Ramabanana Alternative Mix) which are not available on the LP or Tape; and the Japanese CD has an additional bonus track Tripping On Your Love (Farley/Heller Mix) which is also known as the Loveable Love Dove Caper on the UK CD single for Tripping On Your Love. The inner sleeve features black & white individual band pictures, and promotes the predecessor Bananarama albums (the LP has no inlay), and the Japanese CD includes a booklet of lyrics and the same black & white photos. From a collectors point of view, all prints of Pop Life are very similar - the US CD is a slightly different colour scheme, and the Australian inner sleeve come as either a fold out sheet or booklet. The most collectable issue would be the Japanese print that came with a free scarf, and has the additional bonus track of Tripping On Your Love (Farley/Heller Mix).

 

UK London RAMA6
Released: May 1991
UK chart position: 42