Music Review: Wendy & Lisa, Wendy and Lisa

By Paul Casey

Wendy & Lisa have put out five albums and one EP of original material during the years they have worked as a duo. For such a talented pair this does not seem like nearly enough. The benefit of having so few albums is, however, there is no off period. Their debut, Wendy and Lisa, came out in 1987 and started a (short) string of great albums. It is a classic of the 1980s, and unavoidably a document of what Prince lost when he fired Wendy, Lisa, and Bobby Z. (who co-produces the album).

It’s hard to get away from this sad reality when you read about the album, and indeed when Wendy & Lisa talk about the events surrounding its creation. A Prince obsessive (hello) is more inclined to think of it through that filter. How the final Revolution album Dream Factory never got a proper outing; how Prince’s quality control took a severe nosedive; how he never had a genuinely collaborative relationship with anyone after that point.

We have talked about all of that before. It does a disservice to the album to solely tie it to Prince and how his career might have been better had he maintained his creative relationship with The Revolution. Wendy and Lisa is the start of something rather good, and deserves a listen from that perspective. Wendy & Lisa were obviously talented enough to support their own career, and in spite of the motivation behind its recording, it is a Very Good Thing that they got to put out an album together.

The debut is not as funky as 1989’s Fruit At The Bottom—my personal favorite—but it is replete with low-down spooky love songs (the kind they did so well on “Sometimes It Snows in April”) and more hooks than a hook-related emporium. The album begins with a trio of hit-ready tracks: “Honeymoon Express,” “Sideshow,” and the big hope “Waterfall.”

The album is full of classy hooks, and these three have more than their share. “Waterfall” reached #56 in the US. “Sideshow” reached #49 in the UK, and “Honeymoon Express” didn’t chart at all. This does not represent the quality of these songs adequately, particularly the opener, which turns from funky verse to super sweet and poppy chorus in a joyful turn. The album starts on the up. Then “Stay” appears and things don’t seem quite as cheery. Rejection and isolation permeate the album.

On “Chance To Grow,” there may be a hint of opportunity—creative or personal—that comes from being left alone, but it feels more like a sarcastic jab. “Don’t build it up to tear it down.” While there is only one song on the LP that was certainly written about Prince and the breakup of the group—“Song About”—that abandonment influences most of the album. Even when there is a funky, brighter element as on the closer “Light,” it still seems gloomy. That anxiety has not gone, as heard in the doom synth break in the middle of the song.

This reissue has some brief but interesting notes from Lisa Coleman, as well as different versions of the first three tracks. While talking about the song “Stay,” she says: “We wrote this alone in a room, pretty fresh from the breakup with Prince. We were really having fun with chords—but sad fun. Wendy was playing guitar and me piano and we were trying to make each other cry with sadder and sadder chords.”

Wendy and Lisa is an album that best suits these kinds of low moments. It is no surprise that it was, in a sense, the result of one. Regardless of its origin though, it remains a classic album from two of the best pop songwriters of the 1980s.

Wendy and Lisa has been reissued by Cherry Red Records and is available now. You may purchase the album from the label’s website.