REPUBLICA - Republica

I've always had a soft spot for the notion of a band that combined rock and dance with a bit of melody to make something thoroughly modern and yet probably disposable. On the evidence of the two hit singles on this album, I thought this might be the one. It isn't.

'Ready To Go' is so influential here that it's on the CD twice, the bonus being the 'original mix' - wow! The album track is a bit more Simple Minds than is good for it whilst the bonus track has a dancier mix. You know the song by now and it's pretty good but at 5 minutes plus on both takes, the words 'dead horse' and 'flogging' come to mind. Now at maybe 3 minutes 40 ...

'Drop Dead Gorgeous' is similarly good, but perhaps a bit less repetitive, although not as catchy. And the rest? Hmm. One of my main problems with this album is Saffron's voice, or rather her shouting (it's certainly not singing.) and over the course of the album it really starts to grate. It's not helped by the anonymity of most of the songs which veer between dancey and a bit rocky to more dancey. The lyrics are pretty terrible too. (Why did I buy this then you ask? Well it was the third album in a 3 for £20 job. Perhaps I should have bought Monaco instead.)

Republica would probably like to think of themselves as a Blondie for the 90's, but at present they're about a dozen hit singles short of that and are probably a Transvision Vamp for the 90's instead. Not particularly recommended (although my near 2 year old son would disagree!)