# Bizarre Fruit

Professional ratings :
| Initial reviews (in 1995) ||
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Cash Box | (favorable) |
| Robert Christgau | A− |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− |
| The Guardian | (favorable) |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Music & Media | (favorable) |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Select | |
| Smash Hits | 3/5 |
| Spin | 7/10 |
Professional ratings :
| Retrospective reviews (after 1995) ||
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
Bizarre Fruit is the third album by British dance band M People. It was released on 14 November 1994 and charted and peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, 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" (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 Dance chart.

## Critical reception

AllMusic editor William Cooper stated that Bizarre Fruit is "chock-full of funky house grooves", and Heather Small'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 viewed the album as a "irrepressible" follow-up to Elegant Slumming, concluding that it "has more than its share of house-quaking grooves."
Johnny Dee from NME 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." Mark Sutherland from Smash Hits 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 stompalongs that made the last album such an event."

## Charts
### Weekly charts

| Chart (1994–1996) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 14 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 28 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 30 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 4 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 3 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 29 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 3 |
| US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) | 17 |

### Year-end charts

| Chart (1995) | Position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 21 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 47 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 23 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 19 |
| Chart (1996) | Position |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 14 |

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Australia (ARIA) | Platinum | 70,000$^^$ |
| Germany (BVMI) | Gold | 250,000$^^$ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ) | Platinum | 15,000$^^$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | 5× Platinum | 1,500,000$^^$ |
| $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |||

## Release history

| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
| United Kingdom | 14 November 1994 | Deconstruction | LP | 74321 24081 1 |
| United Kingdom | 14 November 1994 | Deconstruction | CD | 74321 24081 2 |
| United Kingdom | 14 November 1994 | Deconstruction | Cassette | 74321 24081 4 |
| North America | 12 May 1995 | Epic | LP | E 67037 |
| North America | 12 May 1995 | Epic | CD | EK 67037 |
| North America | 12 May 1995 | Epic | Cassette | ET 67037 |
| United Kingdom | 7 March 2005 | Sony BMG | CD | |