The Bongos

condition (record/cover): EX /VG (light wear + 6" top seam split + bumped corners) In 1983, the Bongos signed with RCA Records and made their label debut with the five-song EP Numbers with Wings. Between having a major-label budget at their disposal, the new presence of an outside producer (Richard Gotteher) and the addition of a fourth Bongo (guitarist Jim Mastro, who had joined after the release of Drums Along the Hudson), Numbers with Wings sounded considerably different than the group's earlier work, but this was a rare case where the bigger sound and added polish managed to reinforce the Bongos' strengths rather than drowning them out. The group's leader and lead guitarist, Richard Barone, had added a guitar synth to his arsenal for these sessions, and it adds a cool sheen to numbers like "Sweet Blue Cage" and the title cut, and Gotteher and producer John Jansen give this material a considerably more spacious sound than the Bongos had ever had before, with the drums and guitars sounding practically epochal compared to their early singles.

This music is less tense and wiry than Drums Along the Hudson, but Barone's gift for writing a great and unique pop song did not fail him, and the tough rhythmic pulse of these songs is as sure-footed as anything the band would ever record. The Bongos were a band with a keen sense of rhythm, so it made sense for them to record songs as dancefloor friendly as "Numbers with Wings" and "Barbarella," and the lush mystery of "Sweet Blue Cage" makes it the most hauntingly beautiful thing this band would ever release. Very few bands that came out of the Hoboken Scene of the early '80s were well served by the notion of "Bigger Is Better," but Numbers with Wings shows it worked for the Bongos, at least for about 20 minutes.