Swing Out Sister - Twilight World (Mercury)

Once you get to the 'Twilight world' hook this is OK but the first 30 seconds were really horrible. The production sounds so clean that it shows up a couple of really awful flat notes. I have to be careful about this band because Corinne's grandmother wrote to me around the time of "Breakout" and was almost threatening me if I didn't play it because I come from the same area as her. "Breakout" was a good single but I'm yet to be convinced by her voice. A hit only because of what's gone before, but they're not what I'd call an established band so they'll have to do better stuff than this if they want to last out the year. (Simon Mayo, No 1, April 11, 1987)

Fast becoming a band to reckon with, even if it is all a bit 1982, maaan. Classy, and has no great 'soul bro' pretentions, unlike some others I could mention. A bit like Marvin Gaye meets Astrud Gilberto. (Nancy Culp, Record Mirror, April 11, 1987)

Swing Out Sister - Breakout (Mercury)

Swing, hard funk and be-bop are the order of the day for SOS, a band who like Curiosity Killed The Cat, seem destined to spend their career in a fantasy world of glossy black and white photographs and high class posters. Signed in the afterglow of that rush of blood that accompanied the much vaunted new jazz era, Swing Out Sister will only convince me when they sweat themselves out of a trend and into a real trance. 2/5 (Max Bell, No 1, October 18, 1986)

I'll confess that I'd expected some routine jazz exercise from the Soho/St Martins clique, but I must stand corrected. It's breezy, buoyant, and it's tasteful; this is indeed a good record. (Stuart Bailie, Record Mirror, October 18, 1986)