''Bizarre Fruit'' is the third album by British dance band

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...

. It was released on 14 November 1994 and charted and peaked at No. 3 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, spending one year on the chart before an expanded version of the album, '' Bizarre Fruit II'', was released a year later. In 1996 it was announced that ''Bizarre Fruit'' had reached 1.1 million copies sold worldwide. The albums ''Bizarre Fruit'' and ''Bizarre Fruit II'' were certified 5× platinum in the UK for sales of 1.5 million. The album's two most popular singles were " Sight for Sore Eyes", which reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart and " Search for the Hero", which peaked at No. 9 on the same chart. Other singles released from this album were " Open Your Heart" (No. 9), " Love Rendezvous" (No. 32) and "

Itchycoo Park "Itchycoo Park" is a song by English rock band Small Faces, written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Largely written by Lane, it was among a number of pop songs of the era to make use of flanging, an effect involving, at that time, electro-mec ...

" (No. 11) from the re-released album. In the US, remixes for the song "Padlock" were supplied to club DJs and appeared as the B-side to the CD maxi single of "Search for the Hero". The track reached No. 13 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

chart.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

editor William Cooper stated that ''Bizarre Fruit'' is "chock-full of funky

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

grooves", and

Heather Small Heather Marguerita Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul music, soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud (Heather Small album), Proud'', was released in 2000. Her second and ...

's "deep, soulful vocals add just the right touch to the mix". He highlighted songs like " Open Your Heart", " Sight for Sore Eyes", " Search for the Hero" and "Precious Pearl". Peter Galvin from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' viewed the album as a "irrepressible" follow-up to ''

Elegant Slumming ''Elegant Slumming'' is the second album by the British dance band M People. It was released on 4 October 1993 charting and peaking at number 2 on the UK Album Chart and spent 87 weeks in the Top 75. It re-entered the chart three times in Octo ...

'', concluding that it "has more than its share of house-quaking grooves." ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...

'' wrote, "With its faint echoes of the '70s classic ' Papa Was a Rolling Stone', the song 'Sugar Town' reveals some of M People's present influences, while the aptly-named 'And Finally...' winds the tempo down and ends the album on a poignant note, with the nearest the band gets to a ballad." Johnny Dee from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' praised it as "a consistently faultless and pleasing third album — it's obvious the M in their name now stands for 'Maturity'." He added, "It's impossible to see tracks as catchy as 'Open Your Heart' and 'Padlock' occupying any chart position other than Number One." Brad Beatnik from the ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'' Dance Update said "it's not until ' Love Rendezvous' and the swing-styled 'Precious Pearl' that any real

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

creeps in. 'Walk Away' is the album's arm-waving epic while the closing 'And Finally..' is one of the highlights, a spoken epic of hope for the future." Mark Sutherland from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' wrote, "''Bizarre Fruit'' is crammed full of "classy", "soulful" workouts like 'Sight for Sore Eyes' and 'Drive Time' (wonder when that'll be played on the radio?) that are pleasant in the extreme. But there's no sign of the glorious

handbag house A handbag, commonly known as a purse in North American English, is a Handle (grip), handled medium-to-large bag used to carry personal items. It has also been called a pocketbook in parts of the U.S. Terminology The term "purse" originally ref ...

Critical reception

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References