The Bangles Album: “All Over the Place/Different Light/Everything”

All over the Place is the lost classic. Beatlesque pop without a bad song in sight. Save Talk Show (and possibly The Pretender's debut), it marks the 80's best slice of girl-band rock/pop. "Hero Takes A Fall" and "Dover Beach" doncha wish someone still made songs like that? A Different Light brought fame and recognition. A worthy entry but more for the album cuts (esp."September Gurls", "Walking Down the Street" and "If She Knew.." among others)than the overplayed "Egyptian" and "Manic Monday". Everything features the great "In Your Room". Otherwise, the band moves toward maturity (read dull slickness) losing their earlier sense of abandon and joy. That is, the Bangles were better when they pretended to be Beatles than when they tried to be Heart. Everything isn't terrible (especially in contrast to current music's sorry state) but it's no great shakes either. Biggest disappointment: the absence of the Bangles EP. Released before All Over the Place it features several unknown gems such as "Mary Street", "I Want You" and "How is the Air Up There?" The 5-song ep (released before Michael Steele joined the band) comes close to All Over the Place's quality. Its never been released on cd so far as I know. Shame it wasn't included here. They should have included the ep and assorted non-cd b sides on an extra cd. For the price though, this is a good way to get the (almost) complete Bangles catalog.

The Bangles box set (All over the Place, Different Light, and Everything) is almost too good to be true for a fan! If you already have these albums on CD you might want to pass but if you were a child of the 80's and originally had these albums on cassette or album now is your chance. "All Over The Place," The Bangles big debut album features the awesome songs "Hero Takes a Fall," and "Going Down To Liverpool," which are the only "All Over The Place" songs to make it to the greatest hits set. "Different Light" probably will always be considered their most commercially successful album but this album is so much more than "Walk Like An Egyptian" and "Maniac Monday," you have haunting songs like "Following," and then upbeat songs like "Walking Down Your Street," and "Different Light." I picked up "Everything" in December of 1988 and immediately could sense a huge change in my fav girl group. This album is much more mature and some of the songs are very Beatlesque. Music fans will remember this album for "Eternal Flame" and "In Your Room," but other songs like "Crash and Burn," hold a candle in my Bangles history book. A great set at a great price for someone wanting to enhance their music collection.

This box set was the way that I got the three full-length CDs of the Bangles. Each CD is wonderful, but All Over the Place is the best CD, with Everything in a close second. The best thing about this collection is that I was able to get three CDs for twenty-five dollars, which is a major bargain, considering the high-quality level of the CDs. I already gave individual reviews of each CD, so you can just read those to find out about what makes each one great. To conclude, the Bangles are ABSOLUTELY the best band in the history of rock and roll!