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“Viva” is the tenth studio album by Bananarama. It is scheduled to release by Fascination Records (Girls Aloud, The Saturdays) in September 14 2009 in the UK only. The album is Bananarama’s first studio album since the 2005 released Drama (it has been about 4 years).

First Impressions
With the upbeat sound of “Love Comes“, I do look forward to listening this album. But after listening to the album as a whole, the album sounds tired and not ‘fresh’. The popularity of syth music now(La Roux, LadyGaga, ) makes it seems like the perfect time for Bananarama to make their re-appearance and comeback as one of british girl group in direction competition with modern day girl bands. It’s just bad execution that killed this album.

Standout Tracks

• Love Comes
  Lead single and album opener, the song was written by Bananarama members Sara and Keren and producer Ian Masterson. The pulsating syth makes this song so appealing. For an ear-gasm experience, listen the wideboys remix and the Ian Masterson’s Extended mix. It’s a flop even though there’s heavy promotion for this single.
• Rapture
  Not really ’standing out’ in a good sense, the girls mudered this song with a disco/syth-touch. I definitely prefer the hypnotic iiO original. Only Nadia Ali can rule this track.
• Twisting
  Has a middle-eastern flavour. The chorus is so dreamy, and the hooks are there.
• Tell Me Tomorrow
  Fits in the “Drama” era, but feels kinda muted. A very disco-y track.
• The Runner
  A cover of The Three Degrees song. Very Abba-ish. The 80s feel is literally splash over on this song.
• Dum Dum Boy
  Reminds me of Rihanna’s “Disturbia” with the “Dum Dum” hook. Sounds so similar.

Final Verdict
Even though they roped in Ian Masterson, who had worked with both Girls Aloud and Pet Shop Boys, the album sounds dated. Their previous album effort, “Drama” is definitely much better than this. Disco with a heavy bass beat. This album doesn’t match up especially with the overuse of syth, which makes it sounds like cyber-pop (and I thought auto-tune is annoying). The heavily photoshop-ped album cover is not really helping either.

This album scores a 2 out of 5.