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Swing Out Sister
Biography
Although Swing Out Sister's music is unashamedly commercial pop, their impeccable indie credentials (keyboardist Andy Connell and drummer Martin Jackson were formerly of A Certain Ratio and Magazine, and singer Corrine Drewery had no professional experience at all before joining), jazz-tinged arrangements, and knack for clever hooks move them closer to the indie dance territory of St. Etienne or late period Everything but the Girl than to the cookie-cutter dance-pop of Kylie Minogue or Paula Abdul.

Connell and Jackson formed Swing Out Sister in their hometown of Manchester, England, in 1985 as a studio-based partnership set to refine the jazzy funk of A Certain Ratio and Magazine's quirky reimaginings of old-fashioned middle-of-the-road pop. Nottingham-born singer Drewery joined the duo just in time for their first single, "Blue Mood," in late 1985. That single didn't do much, but the follow-up, "Breakout," was a Top Ten hit in Great Britain and Japan in the fall of 1986. The trio belatedly completed their debut album, It's Better to Travel, in 1987; its U.S. release scored a pair of hits with "Breakout" and "Twilight World." Jackson demoted himself to a partial contributor on 1989's Kaleidoscope World, which emphasized the remaining duo's debt to lush '60s pop by hiring the legendary Jim Webb to arrange and conduct the orchestra.