Republica released their eponymously titled debut album to a great reception in July of 1996. Their singer, Saffron, had a great, innovative look for an increasingly materialistic world, and with a powerhouse voice that could knock Mohammed Ali out with a single verse. The band crashed onto a 1994 post-Brit-pop scene with their debut single ‘Out Of This World‘ a record that failed to achieve all that it could. It wasn’t until the following year the follow-up ‘Bloke‘ managed to scratch the top 100. That should have been it had the band not persevered, releasing a third single that would lead out their debut album. Saffron preached her message to a baying audience and was about to start a rise that would see Republica with ‘Ready To Go’ achieving the status of No.1 Gay Anthem Club Record Worldwide! And with the album things just started to get better, ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ an anthem for every mid to late 90s club chick, was a second huge hit.
‘Ready To Go’ is still the best song ever to listen to while getting dressed for a night on the town. Yet the album also seems to nicely capture the futility of the mid 90’s British club scene. "Poor cow sits alone, pubs close go home - Trapped in your world" sings Saffron in "Out Of The Darkness". "Wrapp" is deliciously sexy, while "Bitch" is perfectly bitchy. Yeah, it's not exactly ground-breaking stuff, yeah, it's cheesy pop, and yeah it involves some bad puns ("In the Hollywood Bowl of cereal killers") wow, two in one line... but it doesn't pretend to be ground-breaking. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than cheesy pop, and Republica do cheesy pop damned well. It's an indisputably fun album with tunes that just flowed, be it in the indie disco, or some of the biggest club-nights. Listen to it if you wanna shake your thing while putting on lip-gloss to get in the mood for a night in the clubs - but only if you do the clubs with a nice big dose of irony.