I must be getting out of touch. This is my first time hearing Manda and the Marbles; and they’ve been putting out music since 1997. I can’t imagine that the music has evolved that much though, ‘cause it sounds more like it was put out in 1987. Manda is channeling Belinda Carlisle on permanent vacation from the Go-Go’s. The Marbles give a more raw musical sound, and a slightly more ‘90s punk sound.
Honestly, this might be what the Go-Go’s sounded like back when they were new, and opening up for bands like the Misfits. Don’t walk away expecting the Marbles to be rough, though. They are not the Misfits (and of course neither were the Go-Go’s when they opened for them.)
Manda and her marbles are definitely a throw-back to another era—an era between really good eras for me. The sound isn’t a bad one, and Manda doesn’t do it badly, but that sonic ship has sailed, darlings. When the used record stores run out of Bangles and Bananarama albums, I guess we will have Manda and the Marbles to rely on.
