Back when I was less generally sanguine about things than nowadays, there were a handful of songs frequently making up my winamp playlist for night-time gloom - music for playing over and over in fits of inchoate despair...well, most of us have been there in one way or another. Anyhow, the point is that "Eternal Flame" was one of the mainstays ("Strong Enough" and "I'll Stand By You" being the other two which have particularly lingered), and so I've got a soft spot for the song a mile wide - no cynicism here!
But I always had an idea that that big ballad wasn't characteristic of the Bangles, and this greatest hits shows their style to be much more a minimalistic, tuneful rock-pop thing replete with quiet (but immediately apparent) charms. Their take on "Hazy Shade of Winter" is easily the best thing on the cd, though "Manic Monday" is also particularly liable to charm me.
