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Bouncing Off the Satellites

Bouncing off the Satellites is the fourth studio album by American new wave band the B-52's, released on September 8, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded in July 1985 and was produced by Tony Mansfield. Founding member and guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS after most of the work on the album was completed, but a year prior to its release. The B-52's had gone on hiatus by the time Bouncing Off the Satellites was released, and it took three years for the band to recover from Wilson's death and release their next studio album, Cosmic Thing.

Recording

Bouncing off the Satellites was recorded in July 1985.

According to Kate Pierson, "Wig" was written and recorded after the band's label, Warner Bros., asked them to write a hit song for the album. The band had the title in mind for years and devised the song via a jam session.

A backwards message was deliberately inserted into the song "Detour Thru Your Mind": in the last 30 seconds of the track, Fred Schneider says, "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle."

Death of Ricky Wilson

During the recording, guitarist Ricky Wilson was suffering from AIDS. Keith Strickland was the only bandmate who was informed of Wilson's illness. Strickland later stated that Wilson "was very protective, particularly of Cindy and his family", due to the public's misconceptions about AIDS.

On October 12, 1985, Wilson finally succumbed to the illness, at the age of 32. Pierson has stated that Wilson worked on the album in its entirety prior to his death, and that it was completed. Strickland later recalled, "After Ricky Wilson died, we felt that the band was finished. We couldn't imagine continuing without him. So, we each went our separate ways." The band took a hiatus from their musical careers until they reformed in 1988 for the recording of their next studio album, Cosmic Thing.

Release and promotion

The album was finally released on September 8, 1986. Devastated at Wilson's death, the band did not tour and were involved in minimal promotion for the album. However, the band did produce a music video for "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland", which Schneider has stated was both "bittersweet" and the best video they ever made.

Pierson later stated, "Warner Bros. figured since we weren't touring after Ricky died that they would just not promote the record. We all went through so many changes—especially without touring, and the record just dropped like a stone—and we all dealt with our grief." Pierson also theorized that the label did not promote the album because the band stated they had no intention of hiring a new guitar player to replace Wilson, thus the label assumed the band would not continue on without him. However, on August 5, 1987, the band appeared on the British ITV show Hold Tight!, miming to the song "Wig", with Strickland now on guitar and Ralph Carney credited on-screen for drums. Carney had previously played saxophone on the B-52's' Mesopotamia (1982) and Whammy! (1983) releases, and had subsequently toured with the band.

Reception

Commercial

Despite the relative lack of promotion, "Summer of Love" was released as the lead single and initially received a considerable amount of airplay from some radio stations, managing to peak at No. 3 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Pierson later recalled that Warner Bros. employee Steve Baker had tried to get the label to promote the album in light of the single's success, to no avail. Subsequently, the album only reached No. 85 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Critical

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice felt Wilson's and Pierson's contributions to the album were "watercolors posing as Kenny Scharfs—not only don't 'Summer of Love' and 'She Brakes for Rainbows' redeem anybody's '60s retro, they don't even take off on it", adding that "Fred's abrasive camp saves the day". Trouser Press opined, "The first side is entirely delightful, filled with such classic B-52 silliness as 'Wig,' 'Detour Thru Your Mind' and 'Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland,' but the flip is overly smooth, limp and uninspired."

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated, "Considering their loss, it's not surprising that the B-52's don't sound entirely focused throughout the record", adding that "There are so many musicians on the record that it winds up sounding too carefully considered -- the polar opposite of the loose, inspired fun of their early work." Similarly, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), J.D. Considine felt the album "flops miserably" and sounded "hollow and contrived", due to the addition of session players. Rich Wilhelm of PopMatters called the album "wistful" and "subdued", concluding that it was "the most subtle of the B-52s' albums, with the loss of Ricky Wilson adding to the album's poignancy." The Spectator felt the album was darker and more melancholy than the band's previous work.