Review: “All Right Now” by Pepsi & Shirlie (Vinyl, 1987)

Today’s Pop Rescue from a fate unknown, is the 1987 debut album All Right Now by English pop duo Pepsi & Shirlie. Will this album be All Right, or has it lost its fizz? Read on…

Pepsi & Shirlie – All Right Now (1987) album.

This 9 track LP (still with free poster!) opens with Heartache, which is a fantastic piece of 1980s pop that was the lead single, and took the duo to #2 in the UK charts. The track is perfectly formed, reminding me of somewhere between Pointer Sisters meets Madonna in 1987. The track shows off the magnificent vocals from Pepsi DeMacque and Shirlie Holliman, and bounces along wonderfully and guaranteed to get your foot tapping. It’s an excellent start for the album.

Next up is Lover’s Revolution, giving us a dramatic synth brass sound, as we drop into a softer beat. The track is much gentler and more soulful than Heartache, and allows Pepsi and Shirlie to show off some nice vocal harmonies, but it lacks in excitement, energy, and therefore catchiness too.

Then it’s Can’t Give Me Love, the album’s third single. It’s off to a good start with a nice synth intro with a thumping strong beat and guitar. Shirlie is straight in with some strong vocals in the first verse, with Pepsi following up to take us to the fairly catchy pop song’s chorus. It’s another bouncy light pop song – allowing both opportunities to show off their vocal power and range (particularly Pepsi with some big notes). Unfortunately, the track stumbled in the UK singles chart at #58, but really deserved a top 10 position instead.

Hightime follows that, and this gives us a mid-tempo pop song, loaded with synths and drum machines. The track feels a little like it’s holding Shirlie’s vocals back a little aside from her more ‘rock’ vocal moments, whilst Pepsi manages to shine ‘okay’, but this is clearly a weaker track, and it was seen as that too by the UK public, with it flopping at #79.

Side One closes with the Pepsi and Shirlie produced What’s Going On Inside Your Head. This gives us a really nice slower track, allowing us to hear the duo’s more heartfelt and richer vocals. The track is a grower, with the melody in the verse taking a little while to get used to, but the chorus works a treat. It’s a nice closing song for the first side.

The second side opens with the brass and percussion galore of second single Goodbye Stranger. This takes us back to the same musical, vocal, and lyrical strength and full-ness of sound that is found in Heartache. It’s singalong, with plenty of space to catch all the lyrics, and great vocal sharing. Unsurprisingly, it was a hit, taking the duo to #9.

That’s followed by a heavy bass drum of Surrender, which soon er… surrenders to a snare and more synth stabs. Here we find the ladies in a rapid call and response performance, and this gives Shirlie the harder rock vocals in contrast of Pepsi’s softer soulful sound, and whilst it’s pretty rapid, it works quite nicely. They do sound best though in their harmonies, and this results in quite a nice little pop-rock track, and I like the jangly guitar riff.

Crime Of Passion is next, and this gives us a Pepsi co-writer credit, and a second Pepsi & Shirlie produced track. The track opens with some really nice Spanish-inspired sounds, and as the song develops, we’re given a softly sung gentle track. It’s a simple song, with vocals set against a plodding synth line. It’s not quite their La Isla Bonita (by Madonna, from the same year), but it’s probably stylistically the closest we’ve ever got with Pepsi and Shirlie.

The album closes with the distorted drums and growling guitars of the titular track and fourth single, All Right Now. What’s interesting here is that this track is a cover of the huge 1970s and 1990s hit by The Free. It’s an inspired choice, and interesting that it’s also given the honour of being the album title too. Sadly though, it feels a bit like a jumbled mess, missing some of the iconic key moments of the original, throwing in some additional vocals, and the vocals missing the raw power of the music, although it does come together for the chorus, but this was not enough to save it, and it fell down at #50 in the UK chart.

Pepsi & Shirlie’s debut single ‘Heartache’ (1987).

Verdict

Over all, this album is home to some great moments and a couple of brilliant pop belters, but lacking in the strength to carry an entire album.

The duo’s hits – Heartache and Goodbye Stranger really glow here for their brilliance and perfect delivery by Pepsi and Shirlie in equal measure, and amongst the rest of the seven tracks there are some other nice moments too – with Can’t Give Me Love and What’s Going On Inside Your Head also sounding great too.

However, there’s some quite mediocre moments in here too, but it’s the All Right Now cover that hits the low point. The duo aren’t an early Shampoo or Tatu, it just didn’t work.