Sisters (Re-issue) by The Bluebells – Album Review
By David Schuster
Just over 40 years ago, Scottish indie-pop band The Bluebells released their joyful debut album Sisters. Contrasting with the bleak and cynical news headlines of the early ’80s, it was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike. If you’ve only just discovered the group, Sisters is the ideal introduction – and the three singles taken from it are the best place to start.
If you listen to the radio for any length of time, it’s very likely you’ll have heard The Bluebells’ biggest hit, ‘Young at Heart’, even if you were unaware of who played it. Clever folk-pop with soaring violins, it has much the same feel as Dexys Midnight Runners’ ‘Come On Eileen’. The track is also a good illustration of how much of a song’s success is down to exposure. It was originally written by the ’80s girl group Bananarama and The Bluebells’ own Robert Hodgens, but not released as a single. The Bluebells took it to number eight in the UK singles chart in 1984. Almost a decade later, it topped the same chart for the band after being used in a car advertisement.
“Creativity flowered”
The same is partly true of ‘Cath’. This deceptively simple Beatles-esque track about the pangs of love gone sour was first released in 1983, prior to Sisters, reaching the low 60s of the UK chart. Re-issued following the success of ‘Young at Heart’, it climbed to number 38.
Other singles – such as ‘Sugar Bridge (It Will Stand)’, ‘I’m Falling’ and ‘All I Am (Is Loving You)’ – illustrate that the band were far more than one-hit wonders: songwriters with genuine talent and passion. Sadly though, like their floral namesake, the group’s creativity flowered briefly and then faded, snuffed out by an indifferent music mega-corporation. While the band reformed in 2008, they didn’t produce a second studio album until 2023’s In the 21st Century. Imagine then, with a lifetime’s more experience, if you could go back and relive that time – what would you do differently?
The Bluebells, 2025
image: Brian Sweeney
“Powerful”
The Bluebells now have that opportunity, thanks to a full remaster of Sisters on London Records. So I asked that question of founding member, vocalist and harmonica player Ken McCluskey. “This time around, we had an input into choosing versions of the tracks. There’s always, like, 20 versions of songs with different mixes. We were on tour when the original came out, so the record company picked the mixes. I preferred to be part of compiling the album compared to before. We all preferred to be more hands-on.”
The group have done that – and a whole lot more. The original release had ten tracks; the re-issued CD has a full 19, and that’s not padding. ‘Forever More’ and ‘All I Am (Is Loving You)’ were both singles that never made it onto a studio release. These, along with a powerful cover of the 1936 protest song ‘The Ballad of Joe Hill’, show that this is a band with true depth – one that deserves a wider audience.
In fact, the re-release comes as a double vinyl or a three-CD-plus-DVD set. Especially in the latter case, you get several versions of some songs. For example, for the classic ‘I’m Falling’, you get the original album track on the first CD, a US edit on the second, and a live version from their 1985 gig at Camden Palace. If that weren’t enough, on the DVD you also get the official music video that accompanied ‘I’m Falling’ as a single, plus the group performing it on Top of the Pops. If you’re a completist, you can have a lot of fun emulating the band and comparing the different versions against each other.
So whether you’re a new or diehard Bluebells fan, Sisters is something you won’t want to be without.
David Schuster describes himself as an “adventurer, collector, musician and writer. Not necessarily in that order.” Growing up west of the Pennine hills of the UK and living his adult life east of them, he’s inclined to think that the Wars of the Roses were a mistake. David loves discovering new bands and musicians and is happiest listening to live music. He has travelled extensively in the UK and is fascinated by the variety, history and landscapes of the thousands of islands that comprise the British Isles. David is always reassured when online shops confirm that he’s not a robot.
