My Top Ten Long Players
Hey, a blog project at last!
The lovely Old Cheeser has tagged me to take part in a Top 10 Albums meme thing that's doing the rounds at the moment. [Okay, so it was weeks ago but it took me ages to write this. Sorry!]
I thought long and hard about it and started by deciding that I'd only allow one album from each of my "Big Four" (i.e. Kyles, Kim, Madge, Alanis) in the list, otherwise the whole thing would just be taken up with Kylie albums.
These are still in no particular order, though. Okay, so I had to cheat to retain some sanity, folks. This job is harder than you think.
Amy Grant - Behind The Eyes (1997)
Behind The Eyes was Amy's first album since 1994's all rather bouncy and jolly House Of Love. It was also the first since her, gulp... divorce, which naturally resulted in her church disowning her and practically announcing her a satanist. Well, it's safe to say that the whole nasty affair affected her somewhat. I mean, just look at her for pete's sake. Out went the sparkly eyes, the blindingly white smile and those over-conditioned long locks. In came the weary, weather-beaten face of a broken woman.
Behind The Eyes is certainly the least holy of Amy's albums and it's easily the most sombre of her career. However, it's also her most revealing work, exposing what are surely first-hand accounts of unions breaking down, hearts being ripped apart and deep sorrows felt for great loves lost. Still, there are messages of hope and happiness tucked away in the tracklisting too. Curious Thing is a superb countryfied giggle at the curveballs life can throw at you. Takes a Little Time is all about reassuring us that everything will work out just fine in the end, while Leave It All Behind is pure fantasy - let's just get in the car and drive, who knows where. All in all, though, it's Amy Grant at her most surprising and credible - and I love it.
The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten (1996)
Hey, I'm quite happy to tell you I discovered The Corrs loooonng before they hit it big. That's long before they hit it big then promptly got lost in dumperville of course. Or, should I say, when they were still really cool, actually. In 1997, I hadn't listened to an album quite like Forgiven, Not Forgotten before. On paper, it sounded like an album I was born to hate. But one listen to the title track and lead single and I was hooked.
Sitting aside pretty, jolly, celtic instrumentals is bittersweet ballads and folk-rock-pop anthems. Forgiven Not Forgotten is a haunting epic ballad, telling the story of a woman trapped in a black depression, still yearning for a love long since disappeared. Love To Love You is every bit as heartbreaking but told from a completely different perspective, while Someday, on the other hand, is an awesome song in which Andrea Corr reassures the bloke she's just dumped that he'll get over her, erk... someday. [Charming, eh?] Oh, and Secret Life has the nerve to rhyme mention with intention, detention *and* dimension. In other words, it's completely brilliant.
It's a shame that they've never bettered this album - their trillion selling Talk On Corners doesn't even come close in my book - but Forgiven, Not Forgotten remains one of my most favourite albums of all time, and very deservedly so.
Gina G - Fresh! (1997)
Oh my god. Explosion of colour! Camp overload!! Freakin' chocolate freakin' body paint!!! In a complete change of pace, it's Gina G - and if this album sleeve is anything to go by, the G stands for, er... ginger.
You know, I hauled this disc out of the CD box under my bed the other week, thinking to myself, "hey, this was quite good wasn't it?" I was wrong, in fact. This album is amazing. There were about a million singles taken from it before it even got released in the spring of 1997 and there really could have been two or three more by the time it disappeared from the charts. Seriously, it's *that* good.
Just a Little Bit needs no introduction, of course. Its not-so-thrilling-at-the-time follow-up, i.e. I Belong To You suddenly sounds heaps better than most of the danceable dreck around today. Gimme Some Love is Europop perfection, whilst Higher Than Love takes the Motiv8 production to the Nth degree, with so many overlapping drum beats, you'll think there's been an explosion in a metronome factory. Rhythm Of My Life is grade-A cheese to the extreme with one of the most ridiculous lyrics ever, i.e. "Cut your hair, rip your jeans, I'm a victim of your fashion scene. My brother doesn't like ya, my sister thinks you're cool."
Kim Wilde - Close (1988)
When people ask me what my favourite Kim Wilde album is, I'm forever torn between my Top 3, i.e. 1984's Teases & Dares [edgy electro masterpiece - think Frankie Goes To Hollywood meets Blake's 7], 1992's Love Is [Guitars on the dancefloor smash - think Stock Aitken Waterman meets Belinda Carlisle] and this, her biggest seller.
Close spawned no less than five singles back in 1988 and every single one of them was simply outstanding. Hey Mister Heartache remains one of my most favourite songs of all time and is one of the most bittersweet break-up songs you'll ever hear. "How much can you fake? How many hearts break?" she demands to know. "You don't give, you just take. I hope for your sake you don't turn your back on love." By the song's climax, however, she pleads, "go... before I change my mind." Incredible.
Elsewhere on the album, if ever there's a template for the perfect pop song, You Came is it. Seriously, no-one can love you more! Never Trust a Stranger is so in-your-face and epic that it raises the hairs on the back of my neck each time I listen to it. You'll Be The One Who'll Lose is a change of pace but is equally powerful. "It doesn't matter what you do, I'm gonna leave you anyway... since you're so fast at moving honey, you never even noticed you lost me." Stone has a nice save-the-planet message, as well as two false choruses and cute lyrics such as, "most people wake from a nightmare to find, everything's great it was all in their mind."
Awesome from start to finish and well you know it.
Roxette - Joyride (1991)
Don't you dare snigger to yourself. Hey, I know that Roxette had a credibility problem. I think it probably had something to do with their hairdos. That's a fair point actually [Per Gessle's barnet was particularly attrocious] but everyone forgets that when it came down to making awesome pop songs, Roxette were just completely amazing. No, really.
Joyride is a *great* album. There are fifteen tracks and every one of them could easily have been a single. About half of them actually *were* singles. Musically, it's a nice dichotomy of heartbreaking ballads [Watercolours In The Rain, Fading Like a Flower, Spending My Time] versus up-tempo, uplifting soft-rock tunes [Soul Deep, Hotblooded, Physical Fascination] complete with never ending loony lyrics across the board [yes, she is indeed "telling all her secrets in a wonderful balloon"].
Hey, so I think the cool police might be about to knock down my front door, brandishing a warrant for my arrest, but I don't really care - they've been after me for ages.
Alanis Morissette - So-Called Chaos (2004)
Despite the title, So-Called Chaos is Alanis's loved-up album. The typeface on the sleeve might harken back to the Jagged Little Pill days, but that's really the only comparison you'll be able to make between the two LPs. Whilst on Pill she's battle-scarred, aggressive, whiny and somewhat scary, on Chaos she's vulnerable and philosophical, not to mention, in places, really very funny. Eight Easy Steps, for example, sees Alanis offering herself as mentor to anyone who fancies becoming a great big fuckup. She's perfectly qualified, as it happens. "I've been doing research for years," she tells us. "I've been practicing my ass off."
This might be Alanis's loved-up album but that doesn't mean she's angst-free. No siree. She may have her man but that only means she's terrified of losing him, which means all kinds of insecurities and neuroses soon come to the fore. Doth I Protest Too Much sees her denying everything she thinks her man will hate about her personality, despite knowing all those things are true. Spineless sees every aspect of her individuality being consumed by a man who doesn't deserve her.
However, the album's closing track, Everything, is by far the most beautiful song on the album and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye. At last, Alanis sings of unabashed, unashamed, unconditional true love. "You dig everything of which I am ashamed... and you're still here."
Cathy Dennis - Am I The Kinda Girl? (1996)
I was dead against Cathy's movement from full-on dance music towards guitar-led indie tunes. This was the girl who started out singing with D-Mob, after all. You know... the acieeeeed guys. After a promising start in the clubs but a slow start in the charts, she clawed her way into the US charts with Touch Me (All Night Long). Success in the UK followed with her two albums Move To This (massive) and Into The Skyline (not massive but still brilliant). But by 1995, Cathy was farting around with Ray Davies of The Kinks and started work on Am I The Kinda Girl?, her third LP. It promised to be a huge exercise in career suicide and, in the end, it kinda *was* really, given that it ended up being her last album, at least for now.
It may have been a huge flop, but that doesn't stop it from being her greatest ever LP. Showcasing a completely tongue-in-cheek approach to her songwriting, the result was a tremendous, sometimes heartbreaking, but most often hilarious trip through dating and relationship hell.
Comedy lyrics abound on tracks like 'Fickle', "You kneel to pray then say cor blind me", 'Homing The Rocket', "I could get more kicks from a Mexican dish, than I'm ever gonna get when I'm hanging around with you", and 'That is Why You Love Me', "Cos it's not that way that you make me laugh, when you put my hairdryer in the bath". Whilst on 'Stupid Fool' it's all about her realising the grass isn't greener after all. "Now that I have nothing, I realise I had everything. Now that I have nothing, I realise what a stupid fool I've been."
Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1990)
Hey, it's Janet... long before she got whisked away by the sex fairies and could still make an album which wasn't all about getting her nipples wired up to car batteries and other bonkers pervy stuff. And it's all the better for it.
Rhythm Nation 1814 starts off by being a bit of a concept album, with its dance our way to a better world / don't do drugs / crime is for losers / racism is rubbish / rock out illiteracy message enduring throughout the entire first half of the album. Rhythm Nation, for example, is a call-to-arms for Janet's street-team to rise up and spread the word. In the video for The Knowledge Janet gets angry, smashing windows and knocking over chimney stacks shouting "NO!" to world problems like prejudice, bigotry and ignorance. Oh, and what about mindless vandalism, Miss Jackson?
Elsewhere, the album's umpteen singles still sound as brilliant today as they did more than a decade and a half ago. Escapade is still wonderful and fun, while Miss You Much is every bit as cute and danceable. Alright has a neat housey vibe. Black Cat adds an excellent rock element to the dancefloor. Whilst Love Will Never Do (Without You) is quite simply the best song she's ever sung.
Madonna - Erotica (1992)
The album that catapulted Madonna into the "Big Four" league for me is, funnily enough, the same album that got itself caught up in Madge's preposterous Sex book palaver. It's ironic, of course, that the title track is about the least erotic track on the album. Instead, it mixes up cheesy, saucy postcard-esque lyrics - "I'll hit you like a truck, I'll teach you how to..." - with a dark and sinister soundtrack and spooky Eastern influences.
Sure, the rest of the album has some sexual themes, not least on Where Life Begins - "Everyone should experience eating out" - but it's actually far less salacious than you might expect. In actual fact, Erotica is simply an album full of rather nice love songs, with the odd double entendre thrown in here and there for extra effect. The production is also quite unique and it's safe to say that Madonna hasn't made an album that sounds quite like it since. Pounding gargantuan beats and bass sits askew alongside a rather sweet loungey soundtrack. I think it's rather fantastic, actually.
There are loads of standout tracks. As well as the six singles the album spawned, keep your ears open for In This Life, which is a mournful lament for a friend she lost to AIDS. Thief of Hearts plays like an episode of Sweet Valley High and is quite unintentionally hilarious. Words has a brilliant spoken section where she rhymes, "Don't mince words, don't be evasive, speak your mind, be persuasive" [genius!], whilst Why's It So Hard *isn't* a song about her man's erection, but a great big "make love, not war" anthem.
Kylie Minogue - Light Years (2000)
Poolside. Disco. Cocktails. Three of the Minoguester's keywords to describe the concept for Light Years, her 2000 album and arguably, her greatest LP of all time.
Her first album for Parlophone, Light Years is the complete antithesis to 1997's Impossible Princess. Where that album was dark, foreboding and hopelessly introspective, Light Years is basking in sunlight, utterly joyous and ridiculously effervescent. On Impossible Princess she might sing about her self-destructive behaviour, crippling claustrophobia and the terror of being lost in limbo, but on Light Years she dances in discotheques, sets sail on ocean liners and is an inter-galactic air hostess on a space flight to visit the pop stars on the moon.
The disc is also completely without fillers and every track could have been, nay should have been, a single. Disco Down is an Abba-esque arms-aloft unashamed anthemic power-pop masterpiece. Butterfly is simply made for the dancefloor and is easily Kylie at her most legitimately danceable. Your Disco Needs You became a gargantuan Kylie classic for very good reasons. Even the track Password is a hidden gem you won't want to miss [rewind Spinning Around to hear it.]
Fever may be her biggest seller world-wide, but even that isn't as consistently brilliant as this, so if you haven't sampled it yet, I suggest you strap on your pink spacesuit and prepare to travel in Light Years.
The lovely Old Cheeser has tagged me to take part in a Top 10 Albums meme thing that's doing the rounds at the moment. [Okay, so it was weeks ago but it took me ages to write this. Sorry!]
I thought long and hard about it and started by deciding that I'd only allow one album from each of my "Big Four" (i.e. Kyles, Kim, Madge, Alanis) in the list, otherwise the whole thing would just be taken up with Kylie albums.
These are still in no particular order, though. Okay, so I had to cheat to retain some sanity, folks. This job is harder than you think.
Amy Grant - Behind The Eyes (1997)Behind The Eyes was Amy's first album since 1994's all rather bouncy and jolly House Of Love. It was also the first since her, gulp... divorce, which naturally resulted in her church disowning her and practically announcing her a satanist. Well, it's safe to say that the whole nasty affair affected her somewhat. I mean, just look at her for pete's sake. Out went the sparkly eyes, the blindingly white smile and those over-conditioned long locks. In came the weary, weather-beaten face of a broken woman.
Behind The Eyes is certainly the least holy of Amy's albums and it's easily the most sombre of her career. However, it's also her most revealing work, exposing what are surely first-hand accounts of unions breaking down, hearts being ripped apart and deep sorrows felt for great loves lost. Still, there are messages of hope and happiness tucked away in the tracklisting too. Curious Thing is a superb countryfied giggle at the curveballs life can throw at you. Takes a Little Time is all about reassuring us that everything will work out just fine in the end, while Leave It All Behind is pure fantasy - let's just get in the car and drive, who knows where. All in all, though, it's Amy Grant at her most surprising and credible - and I love it.
The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten (1996)Hey, I'm quite happy to tell you I discovered The Corrs loooonng before they hit it big. That's long before they hit it big then promptly got lost in dumperville of course. Or, should I say, when they were still really cool, actually. In 1997, I hadn't listened to an album quite like Forgiven, Not Forgotten before. On paper, it sounded like an album I was born to hate. But one listen to the title track and lead single and I was hooked.
Sitting aside pretty, jolly, celtic instrumentals is bittersweet ballads and folk-rock-pop anthems. Forgiven Not Forgotten is a haunting epic ballad, telling the story of a woman trapped in a black depression, still yearning for a love long since disappeared. Love To Love You is every bit as heartbreaking but told from a completely different perspective, while Someday, on the other hand, is an awesome song in which Andrea Corr reassures the bloke she's just dumped that he'll get over her, erk... someday. [Charming, eh?] Oh, and Secret Life has the nerve to rhyme mention with intention, detention *and* dimension. In other words, it's completely brilliant.
It's a shame that they've never bettered this album - their trillion selling Talk On Corners doesn't even come close in my book - but Forgiven, Not Forgotten remains one of my most favourite albums of all time, and very deservedly so.
Gina G - Fresh! (1997)Oh my god. Explosion of colour! Camp overload!! Freakin' chocolate freakin' body paint!!! In a complete change of pace, it's Gina G - and if this album sleeve is anything to go by, the G stands for, er... ginger.
You know, I hauled this disc out of the CD box under my bed the other week, thinking to myself, "hey, this was quite good wasn't it?" I was wrong, in fact. This album is amazing. There were about a million singles taken from it before it even got released in the spring of 1997 and there really could have been two or three more by the time it disappeared from the charts. Seriously, it's *that* good.
Just a Little Bit needs no introduction, of course. Its not-so-thrilling-at-the-time follow-up, i.e. I Belong To You suddenly sounds heaps better than most of the danceable dreck around today. Gimme Some Love is Europop perfection, whilst Higher Than Love takes the Motiv8 production to the Nth degree, with so many overlapping drum beats, you'll think there's been an explosion in a metronome factory. Rhythm Of My Life is grade-A cheese to the extreme with one of the most ridiculous lyrics ever, i.e. "Cut your hair, rip your jeans, I'm a victim of your fashion scene. My brother doesn't like ya, my sister thinks you're cool."
Kim Wilde - Close (1988)When people ask me what my favourite Kim Wilde album is, I'm forever torn between my Top 3, i.e. 1984's Teases & Dares [edgy electro masterpiece - think Frankie Goes To Hollywood meets Blake's 7], 1992's Love Is [Guitars on the dancefloor smash - think Stock Aitken Waterman meets Belinda Carlisle] and this, her biggest seller.
Close spawned no less than five singles back in 1988 and every single one of them was simply outstanding. Hey Mister Heartache remains one of my most favourite songs of all time and is one of the most bittersweet break-up songs you'll ever hear. "How much can you fake? How many hearts break?" she demands to know. "You don't give, you just take. I hope for your sake you don't turn your back on love." By the song's climax, however, she pleads, "go... before I change my mind." Incredible.
Elsewhere on the album, if ever there's a template for the perfect pop song, You Came is it. Seriously, no-one can love you more! Never Trust a Stranger is so in-your-face and epic that it raises the hairs on the back of my neck each time I listen to it. You'll Be The One Who'll Lose is a change of pace but is equally powerful. "It doesn't matter what you do, I'm gonna leave you anyway... since you're so fast at moving honey, you never even noticed you lost me." Stone has a nice save-the-planet message, as well as two false choruses and cute lyrics such as, "most people wake from a nightmare to find, everything's great it was all in their mind."
Awesome from start to finish and well you know it.
Roxette - Joyride (1991)Don't you dare snigger to yourself. Hey, I know that Roxette had a credibility problem. I think it probably had something to do with their hairdos. That's a fair point actually [Per Gessle's barnet was particularly attrocious] but everyone forgets that when it came down to making awesome pop songs, Roxette were just completely amazing. No, really.
Joyride is a *great* album. There are fifteen tracks and every one of them could easily have been a single. About half of them actually *were* singles. Musically, it's a nice dichotomy of heartbreaking ballads [Watercolours In The Rain, Fading Like a Flower, Spending My Time] versus up-tempo, uplifting soft-rock tunes [Soul Deep, Hotblooded, Physical Fascination] complete with never ending loony lyrics across the board [yes, she is indeed "telling all her secrets in a wonderful balloon"].
Hey, so I think the cool police might be about to knock down my front door, brandishing a warrant for my arrest, but I don't really care - they've been after me for ages.
Alanis Morissette - So-Called Chaos (2004)Despite the title, So-Called Chaos is Alanis's loved-up album. The typeface on the sleeve might harken back to the Jagged Little Pill days, but that's really the only comparison you'll be able to make between the two LPs. Whilst on Pill she's battle-scarred, aggressive, whiny and somewhat scary, on Chaos she's vulnerable and philosophical, not to mention, in places, really very funny. Eight Easy Steps, for example, sees Alanis offering herself as mentor to anyone who fancies becoming a great big fuckup. She's perfectly qualified, as it happens. "I've been doing research for years," she tells us. "I've been practicing my ass off."
This might be Alanis's loved-up album but that doesn't mean she's angst-free. No siree. She may have her man but that only means she's terrified of losing him, which means all kinds of insecurities and neuroses soon come to the fore. Doth I Protest Too Much sees her denying everything she thinks her man will hate about her personality, despite knowing all those things are true. Spineless sees every aspect of her individuality being consumed by a man who doesn't deserve her.
However, the album's closing track, Everything, is by far the most beautiful song on the album and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye. At last, Alanis sings of unabashed, unashamed, unconditional true love. "You dig everything of which I am ashamed... and you're still here."
Cathy Dennis - Am I The Kinda Girl? (1996)I was dead against Cathy's movement from full-on dance music towards guitar-led indie tunes. This was the girl who started out singing with D-Mob, after all. You know... the acieeeeed guys. After a promising start in the clubs but a slow start in the charts, she clawed her way into the US charts with Touch Me (All Night Long). Success in the UK followed with her two albums Move To This (massive) and Into The Skyline (not massive but still brilliant). But by 1995, Cathy was farting around with Ray Davies of The Kinks and started work on Am I The Kinda Girl?, her third LP. It promised to be a huge exercise in career suicide and, in the end, it kinda *was* really, given that it ended up being her last album, at least for now.
It may have been a huge flop, but that doesn't stop it from being her greatest ever LP. Showcasing a completely tongue-in-cheek approach to her songwriting, the result was a tremendous, sometimes heartbreaking, but most often hilarious trip through dating and relationship hell.
Comedy lyrics abound on tracks like 'Fickle', "You kneel to pray then say cor blind me", 'Homing The Rocket', "I could get more kicks from a Mexican dish, than I'm ever gonna get when I'm hanging around with you", and 'That is Why You Love Me', "Cos it's not that way that you make me laugh, when you put my hairdryer in the bath". Whilst on 'Stupid Fool' it's all about her realising the grass isn't greener after all. "Now that I have nothing, I realise I had everything. Now that I have nothing, I realise what a stupid fool I've been."
Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1990)Hey, it's Janet... long before she got whisked away by the sex fairies and could still make an album which wasn't all about getting her nipples wired up to car batteries and other bonkers pervy stuff. And it's all the better for it.
Rhythm Nation 1814 starts off by being a bit of a concept album, with its dance our way to a better world / don't do drugs / crime is for losers / racism is rubbish / rock out illiteracy message enduring throughout the entire first half of the album. Rhythm Nation, for example, is a call-to-arms for Janet's street-team to rise up and spread the word. In the video for The Knowledge Janet gets angry, smashing windows and knocking over chimney stacks shouting "NO!" to world problems like prejudice, bigotry and ignorance. Oh, and what about mindless vandalism, Miss Jackson?
Elsewhere, the album's umpteen singles still sound as brilliant today as they did more than a decade and a half ago. Escapade is still wonderful and fun, while Miss You Much is every bit as cute and danceable. Alright has a neat housey vibe. Black Cat adds an excellent rock element to the dancefloor. Whilst Love Will Never Do (Without You) is quite simply the best song she's ever sung.
Madonna - Erotica (1992)The album that catapulted Madonna into the "Big Four" league for me is, funnily enough, the same album that got itself caught up in Madge's preposterous Sex book palaver. It's ironic, of course, that the title track is about the least erotic track on the album. Instead, it mixes up cheesy, saucy postcard-esque lyrics - "I'll hit you like a truck, I'll teach you how to..." - with a dark and sinister soundtrack and spooky Eastern influences.
Sure, the rest of the album has some sexual themes, not least on Where Life Begins - "Everyone should experience eating out" - but it's actually far less salacious than you might expect. In actual fact, Erotica is simply an album full of rather nice love songs, with the odd double entendre thrown in here and there for extra effect. The production is also quite unique and it's safe to say that Madonna hasn't made an album that sounds quite like it since. Pounding gargantuan beats and bass sits askew alongside a rather sweet loungey soundtrack. I think it's rather fantastic, actually.
There are loads of standout tracks. As well as the six singles the album spawned, keep your ears open for In This Life, which is a mournful lament for a friend she lost to AIDS. Thief of Hearts plays like an episode of Sweet Valley High and is quite unintentionally hilarious. Words has a brilliant spoken section where she rhymes, "Don't mince words, don't be evasive, speak your mind, be persuasive" [genius!], whilst Why's It So Hard *isn't* a song about her man's erection, but a great big "make love, not war" anthem.
Kylie Minogue - Light Years (2000)Poolside. Disco. Cocktails. Three of the Minoguester's keywords to describe the concept for Light Years, her 2000 album and arguably, her greatest LP of all time.
Her first album for Parlophone, Light Years is the complete antithesis to 1997's Impossible Princess. Where that album was dark, foreboding and hopelessly introspective, Light Years is basking in sunlight, utterly joyous and ridiculously effervescent. On Impossible Princess she might sing about her self-destructive behaviour, crippling claustrophobia and the terror of being lost in limbo, but on Light Years she dances in discotheques, sets sail on ocean liners and is an inter-galactic air hostess on a space flight to visit the pop stars on the moon.
The disc is also completely without fillers and every track could have been, nay should have been, a single. Disco Down is an Abba-esque arms-aloft unashamed anthemic power-pop masterpiece. Butterfly is simply made for the dancefloor and is easily Kylie at her most legitimately danceable. Your Disco Needs You became a gargantuan Kylie classic for very good reasons. Even the track Password is a hidden gem you won't want to miss [rewind Spinning Around to hear it.]
Fever may be her biggest seller world-wide, but even that isn't as consistently brilliant as this, so if you haven't sampled it yet, I suggest you strap on your pink spacesuit and prepare to travel in Light Years.
Labels: All about meme, Pop Paradiso
posted by newplanet @ 12:18 PM
3 hot comments
3 Comments:
Hey, great list and well done!! Bit tied up at present but will return shortly with proper comments...
OC x
Why is it that I've never had any friends locally who have my musical taste? Who else do I know owns, or even knows of, Cathy Dennis' Am I the Kinda Girl? (I'm looking forward to her Sex Cassettes project!) I do love Madonna's Erotica, too. Close would probably be my choice for Kim Wilde, although I adore Love Moves. I was listening to the remixes of the singles from Rhythm Nation last night. However, as much as I like Light Years, I would choose Fever over Light Years. It brings back memories of being in Australia when it was released and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" came from every radio.
Hi Mr Newplanet
Firstly, big apologies for the slow reply. The problem with tagging loads of people is that you then have to visit all their blogs and leave comments on their choices....not that I mind doing that but it's terribly time-consuming, darling...
Anyway. Great choices, chuck.
Amy Grant. You know I was never really into her and found her rather cloying and sickly, religious leanings notwithstanding. "Baby Baby" wasn't exactly awe-inspiring. But this album you write about sounds interesting and makes me wanna check her out (musically that is).
The Corrs. Again not completely my bag but the album sounds good. Often artistes can produce more interesting stuff before they hit the big time/mainstream. I do quite like their voices.
Gina G!! Not TOO camp, Mister. Did you see her on "Reborn in the USA" where it was revealed Gina couldn't sing for toffee?! Miaow. I did rather like "Fresh" as it so happens. Again might have to see if I can procure a cheap copy of her long player or something. And what's Miss G doing now?
Mistress Wilde of the Gardens! I knew you liked her, Graeme. I have to say I DO like the sound of Teases and Dares - anything that combines Blake's 7 with FGTH gets the thumbs up from me. Does that album include "The Second Time"? That one was quite futuristic ... Anyway I did like "You Came" a lot - fab single. And yes, "Wooooooo!! Never trust a strange with your ha-ha-ha-heart!" I remember it well. Yet another album you have inspired me to check out!!
Roxette. Ahem!! I'm sorry to say, I DID snigger. Me and some friends once sat in a bar in Amsterdam opposite a woman who we thought looked just like the gal from Roxette. How we laughed. Maybe it WAS her. I personally liked "Dressed For Success" but that was on "Look Sharp" wasn't it? Oh dear, I am revealing too much...Good for you for not caring about the Cool Cops arresting you. As a man who likes Dollar, Bucks Fizz and Will Powers amongst others, I'm hardly qualified to start making criticisms.
Anus Morisette! Sorry to say it, but her voice has always reminded me of a squawking chicken. But I do admire her integrity and she is definitely the queen of anxst. And you do make this album sound good. I just can't help thinking of French & Saunders taking the p*ss out of her "naked" video.
Cathy Dennis! I always thought style-wise she was pretty naff, but she could churn out a good pop toon couldn't she? Plus of course turning into a songwriter for certain other popstrels and doing a damn good job in the process ... Ms Dennis, I just CAN'T get you out of my head! I love "Everybody Move" and "You Lied to Me". But this album was later in her career wasn't it? I might have to check this one out (just for change...)
Janet J! I agree, "Rhythm Nation" is one of her best - and yep, her recent sexed up stuff doesn't really convince, and more to the point, her songs aren't as good as they were back then. Jesus, "RN" was nearly 20 years ago!! I feel OLD.
I love that opening bit: "We are a nation with no geographic boundaries..." Maybe the idea that music and dancing can save the world's problems is a BIT naive but it's touching all the same. And there are some rocking good songs on this album, like the ones you mention. I also really like "Come Back To Me" and "Someday Is Tonight" with Herb Alpert on horn.
Madge! Neurotic, neurotic, put your hands all over my pastry...You're right about the lyrics on the title track, trying to be rude but silly at the same time. At the same time as the album came out I was doing an MA in Sexual Dissidence at university in Brighton - a gay and lesbian studies course, where the majority of my fellow students were benders - and half the queens on my course rushed out to buy "Erotica" and that bloody Sex book. I remember going round to a mate's house and he'd taken the book out of its foil wrapping and we were all looking through it - bit of a fuss about nowt to be honest.
It's a good album but I wouldn't rate it as Madge's best. I find it kind of ... mechanical. But some good tracks still ... I do like "Where Live Begins" that you mention ... very naughty. The other tracks you refer to are good too, also "Deeper and Deeper" ... in fact, erm, there is rather a lot of decent stuff on there! Time for a reassessment!
Kylie! Good choice of album. I think "Light Years" succeeds a bit more than the "Impossible Princess" album as it's Kylie doing what she does best - going back to her pop roots, unlike the Manics rock experimentation on the previous album, which doesn't really suit her style. Having said that, "Light Years" is actually quite eclectic and isn't just straightforward, fluffy pop. I love "Your Disco...". Also "Kids". And what's this about a hidden track?! I'm going to have to rewind my CD pronto...
Well, erm, just leaving my comments there Graeme! Great post and very expansive on your choices. Well done and thanks!!
OC xx
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