Eighth Wonder - Fearless

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 5 / 5 / 2010

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Generally speaking, when it comes to blonde bubblegum 80's pop princesses I am more a Wendy James than a Patsy Kensit kind of girl. Breathy singing and baby voices don't really do it for me and to be fair it didn't do it for the rest of the UK for very long either. But for a few weeks in 1988 Patsy and her three boys were everywhere. They may have been 'big in Europe, America and Japan' but for most of us our only memory of Eight Wonder is the infernally catchy 'I'm Not Scared'. The song is the epitome of 80's sheepskin collar coats and stonewashed denim pop. It makes two appearances here, one as part of the original 'Fearless' album and once as a bonus 'disco mix'. 'Cross My Heart' also appears twice in both original and 'dance mix' formats. And 'Baby Baby'? I hear you ask, well dear reader, guess what? Two versions of that too! The singles B sides complete the bonus line up. Still with me? So from a total of sixteen tracks we have one UK top ten single (their one and only) and 13 actual songs. The CD booklet is very nice and includes a UK Discography and images of the band over their epic career spanning 1983-89. Honestly I am trying not be mean but I am struggling here. The original album is not bad but it is hardly a classic. Not even a Pet Shop Boys shaped intervention is going to transform it into that. The press release tells me this reissue is "overdue" but I can hand on heart say I have yet to hear anyone bemoan the lack of this particular album in their collection. The addition of the five 'bonus' tracks it sits very uncomfortably and doesn't provide any real padding.

Track Listing:-

1 Cross My Heart
2 When The Phone Stops Ringing
3 Baby Baby
4 Will You Remember?
5 Wild Love
6 I'm Not Scared
7 Use Me
8 Anything At All
9 My Baby's Heartbeat
10 The Dress
11 Stay With Me
12 Cross My Heart (Dance Mix)
13 Let Me In
14 Baby Baby (Dance Mix)
15 I'm Not Scared (Disco Mix)
16 J'ai Pas Peur (French Version)

Label Links:-

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/CherryRedRecords
https://twitter.com/cherryredgroup
https://www.youtube.com/CherryRedRecords

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