Produced by Martin Rushent, Talk Show <\/i>is one of those albums where the great packaging was nearly as important as the music. You gotta love the multi-colored cover and video for \u201cHead Over Heels,\u201d not to mention the many terrific photos of each of the girls.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
What is interesting is that there is no group photo of the band — perhaps a hint that all was not well in Go-Go Land at that point in time. When Talk Show <\/i>failed to go platinum, the writing was on the wall. The Go-Go\u2019s were about to be Gone-Gone. <\/p>\n
Only \u201cHead Over Heels\u201d made it into the Top 20, so it\u2019s fair to say that it is the best song to be found on the album. Hand claps and electric piano solo included, it\u2019s as bouncy as a rubber band and rockin\u2019 as all get-out. The rollicking second single, \u201cTurn To You,\u201d also holds up fairly well, made even more memorable by its gender-bending video.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Releasing \u201cYes Or No\u201d was a mistake, however, even if it was co-written by brothers Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks fame. The good thing about Talk Show <\/i>is that it has a meatier sound than their flat-sounding previous release Vacation, <\/i>did.\u00a0 The casualty, unfortunately, was Belinda Carlisle.\u00a0 Her vocal is simply overwhelmed by the heavy sounding guitars, especially Kathy Valentine\u2019s bass.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Certainly, \u201cI\u2019m The Only One\u201d must be one of Belinda\u2019s least favorite memories, since you can barely hear her. Gina Schock\u2019s drumming is the only part of that song that stands out for me. How they were able to include backing vocals into this album\u2019s mix is beyond me. A perfect case in point is \u201cYou Thought,\u201d where even Jane Wiedlin seems to be doing all she can to make sure her squealing can be heard over the din. <\/p>\n
The ballads on Talk Show <\/i>come as a breath of fresh air. The interlude of \u201cForget That Day\u201d is where all five members sound truly in sync and focused. The song\u2019s tone is reminiscent of Belinda\u2019s impressive solo work that would come later in the 80s. And even though I didn\u2019t care for \u201cMercenary\u201d when I first heard it, it is one song that has grown on me. It was, after all, the last new Go-Gos song the world would hear until their reunion 10 years later (that\u2019s when I met them in person at the L.A. Tower Records). <\/p>\n
If you really want to hear Belinda cut loose and show some muscle, give \u201cCapture The Light\u201d\u00a0 a spin. She really shreds it on that one, which makes me wonder how it has gone forgotten altogether. Not only should it have been a single, it should also be performed live and be included on a hits compilation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The Go-Gos may have been forced to call it a day, but on \u201cCapture The Light\u201d and Talk Show <\/i>they did their very best to shine just one more time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7991],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40378","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-go-gos","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40378"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}