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Electric Barbarella EP

by Kathryn Morgan,
Firedancer Associate Editor

Electric Barbarella enhanced CD single

This review will cover only the musical tracks listed above. The review for the video will follow below. I'd like to first point out that although four of these tracks are listed as previously unreleased, that is not the case. Both the Out Of My Mind (Perfecto Mix) and Sinner Or Saint (erroneously listed here as Sinner And Saint) appeared on the CD single set for Out Of My Mind.

While I do like the song Electric Barbarella, quite a bit, I didn't find the remixes all that interesting. The album version of Electric Barbarella is a good dance song which has the potential to be a big hit for the band. The track is upbeat and bouncy, although it is a bit heavy on effects and Simon's vocals are somewhat muffled. Tee's Club Mix starts off strong, with some solid drum and bass programming that are the highlight of the track. However, once the vocals start, this mix is nearly identical to the album version. Although this mix is meant to be played at dance clubs, I don't think that it does enough to show what a strong dance track this song could be. The All Fired Up mix gives you the best chance to hear and understand the lyrics because the tempo is slower. Most of the guitar has been taken out, and many of the extra background effects have been minimized. The problem with this mix is that it is much too long-over seven minutes. I do not recommend listening to it more than twice in a row unless you are a very big fan of remixes. This mix can become very annoying with repeated listening, as I noticed while writing this review. By the time it hits the five minute mark, you really want it to end-the last two minutes of the song add nothing to the mix whatsoever.

As for Out Of My Mind, my opinion of this track hasn't changed much since I reviewed earlier. Out Of My Mind is a good song, but this mix is too heavy on sampling and effects for my taste. I did notice that they include a sample of Save A Prayer on this track at about three and a quarter minutes in, and it was kind of interesting that I hadn't heard that before now. Sinner Or Saint has a strong beat, and would have been a good addition to Medazzaland.

rating: overall, there's not much here to recommend adding this CD to your collection. Three of the songs are available elsewhere, and the two remixes of EB aren't that strong or distinctive. The artwork is tacky, ugly, and amateurish too. I would give the CD, including the video, five stars out of ten.

  track listing

1. Electric Barbarella (album version)
2. Electric Barbarella (Tee's club mix)
3. Electric Barbarella (All fired up mix)
4. Out Of My Mind (Perfecto mix)
5. Sinner Or Saint
CD-Rom track - director's cut for the Electric Barbarella video

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