Vanity 6

And for the second of my lossless Prince-related posts...

Susan Moonsie, Brenda Bennett and Denise Matthews, better known as Vanity, were the ladies known as Vanity 6. The Time are credited as their backing band and when performing live that was completely accurate. In the studio though, we know better. Prince credits the group and members of The Time with composing the songs, which for the most part is a fabrication. I believe I read somewhere that Jesse Johnson did co-write Bite The Beat but who knows how true that is.

Vanity 6, the album, isn't all that mind-blowing, but it's certainly catchy, throw away dance pop with some memorable touches. Nasty Girl is certainly the best song of the bunch with Vanity's over the top lead vocals, but Wet Dream is just as catchy and He's So Dull, a throw-back to girl-group pop, is also good. The other songs veer between boring and oddly fascinating. If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up) is a ridiculous phone conversation primarily between Vanity and an unidentified female, voiced by Prince of course, that has been sleeping with Vanity's boy. The song doesn't hold my interest beyond the ridiculous verbal sparring between Vanity and Prince although Brenda's assault reminds me that you wouldn't want to run into her in a dark alley. Or maybe you would. Susan's two songs, Drive Me Wild and Make Up, probably sounded the strangest at the time of the album's release with their robotic deliveries, but now their cyberfunk (can I trademark that adjective? seriously?) sounds rather crisp and would be great if dropped in the proper dj set. The two leftovers, Bite The Beat and 3 X 2 = 6 are rather pedestrian, with Bite featuring Brenda going for a bit of Susan's style on a less developed jam and 3 X 2 = 6 being a sappy closer about working girls. What kind of working girls you may ask? Honestly, it could go either way but by the time that song is over I could care less.

For your listening pleasure I have uploaded Vanity 6's self-titled debut, their only full-length album, as a lossless FLAC and V0 MP3, both from a copy of the long out of print US CD. Don't be surprised if you find yourself bopping around to this one all day long. It's nothing great to be certain, but it has an appealing quality to it. I suppose that fun vibe is enough to make it a success. After all, it still sounds good 28 years later.


Vanity 6

FLAC

V0 MP3

01 Nasty Girl
02 Wet Dream
03 Drive Me Wild
04 He's So Dull
05 If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)
06 Make Up
07 Bite The Beat
08 3 X 2 = 6


PS - Just in case you don't know which is which, I've included a little photo below explaining who's who in Vanity 6. Susan always looked so hot! MSPAINT FTW!