Clare Maguire - Light After Dark

Released: February 25, 2011

Purchased: Early 2012 I think, from Amazon.

First Thoughts: This isn't exactly filled with the pop bops I normally go for, so that tells you how excellent it is, that it's my second-favorite album in the world. I guess the closest comparison I can make is Florence, but less rock and more generally subdued. Her voice is just wonderful. I'm looking forward to this.

Playthrough:

Are You Ready? - Pointless like 90% of album intros.

Shield and Sword - This was what got me into Clare. It is a monster of a song - very Kate Bush in some ways, but with that Cher/Moyet-ish voice. I remember totally connecting it to The Hunger Games, which I was reading at the time. It really isn't a great metaphor, but I don't care because this is an amazing song.

Last Dance - One of the more "pop" moments on here. It's not intended to be romantic - it was inspired by the deaths of Clare's grandpa and Michael Jackson - but it's definitely easy to read it as a "friends to lovers" song, and you know I'll never say no to that. The orchestral backing track is a huge plus too.

Freedom - Not one of my favorites. I don't remember if this or Bullet is the one on the album she didn't co-write, but I think it's this one, and it does kind of stick out. It's just not as developed as the rest.

I Surrender - Definitely the most "pop" song on the album. It's very bright and shiny - think Taylor Swift's Treacherous or State of Grace crossed with Tegan and Sara's Heartthrob album. Even though it's not as blissful in its production as I always remember it being, it still comes across as euphoric, though that may be because of the contrast with the rest of the album!

Bullet - This is another very Kate Bush-like song, but it sounds so much better than most of Kate's songs thanks to Clare's endlessly pleasant voice and the modern production. "You shot that bullet through myyyy heaaaaaaaaaarrrrrt" is definitely the album's best display of Clare's vocal abilities.

The Happiest Pretenders - I remember her saying she wrote this to be a song that children could dance to on the playground or something, which is frankly bizarre, because I cannot imagine children really engaging with this song (or indeed most of the album). But it's a lovely song about the gap between fantasy and reality, always one of my favorite topics for a song.

Sweet Lie - I always kind of remember this as being better than it is, probably because the chorus is so much more compelling than the verses. Listening to it now, it actually comes across as kind of fillery, but still truer to the album than Freedom.

Break These Chains - Also quite fillery actually, though I know at times when I've played the album I've loved it. Guess I'm just not in the mood.

You're Electric - This isn't even one of my favorites on the album, but from the instant that intro kicks in, it always grabs me, and doesn't let go until it's over. I totally understand why it was the first single. The auto-tune at the end is so tasteful and a great example of how to use it to enhance a song to great effect. Everything about this song is so BIG.

Ain't Nobody - One of the least special songs on the album, and you can definitely tell it was from earlier on while she was still figuring out her sound. But it's still a very good listen. The chorus is great, as is "you were my desire, yeah, you were my escape."

Light After Dark - I need this to be used as the ending song of a movie, with the screen going black and the credits rolling just as the second verse starts. It's so dramatic, and the lyrics are wonderful and comforting.

This Is Not the End - Feels very much like the album closer. Really lovely and seems like a companion piece to Last Dance.

Final verdict: I'm actually confused right now because this really didn't do it for me tonight like I'd expect my second-favorite album to do. Right now I'd probably give it a 7, but when I've listened to it before it's been a solid 10. Maybe it's just an off night. Too bad they didn't include Lucky (free fan club download), though - that's another amazing song that would have fit in really well.

Highlight: Close call with Shield and Sword, but I think Last Dance is the one I come back to more often. Beautiful video too.

Everything But the Girl - Walking Wounded

Released: May 21, 1996

Purchased: With a Christmas gift card to Borders in middle school.

First Thoughts: This was the album that really introduced me to electronic music beyond commercial dance. I'd never heard of drum'n'bass, let alone heard it, but I loved what I heard on this album. I still know a lot of it by heart.

Playthrough:

Before Today - This song is so bold and unabashed in asking for what the speaker needs. "I don't want your history. I don't want that stuff. I want you to shut your mouth - that would be enough. And I don't care if you've been here before, you don't understand." I love how totally not-coy it is. Love is hard. Relationships are hard. And this doesn't candy-coat it. It feels so real, especially in the light of how much time I spent trying to coy my way out of the very real problems in my relationship.

Wrong - This feels a little like they were chasing a hit. It's obviously modeled on the Todd Terry mix of Missing. But I kind of don't care, because the melodies and production are good, and the lyrics are again amazing. Their fans like to point to their album Idlewild as the peak of their lyrical honesty, but I think this album surpasses it. (Never been a big fan of Idlewild anyway.) I love that it's again unapologetic for chasing what you need - "I wanted everything for a little while. Why shouldn't I? I wanted to know what love was like" - while still admitting imperfection.

Single - I don't think this has ever really been one of my favorites. I definitely don't get why it was a single (hilariously). The lyrics are again incredible ("I haven't dialed this code before" always gets me for some reason, and I love the simplicity of the chorus, which totally boiled down what I felt for so long after my breakup). But musically it feels kind of half-baked.

The Heart Remains a Child - This on the other hand SHOULD have been a single. I've always loved it. I'll even forgive the non-chorus because the verses are so memorable. It's the album's most "pop" moment, and I'm not going to quit saying this, the lyrics are amazing. "Do I wanna hear that you forgive me? Do I wanna hear you're no good without me? And am I big enough to hear that you never even think about me? Why should you ever think about me?" has stuck with me from day fucking one. And "years may go by, and the mind may grow wise, but I think the heart remains a child" is the story of my life. And many other people's, I expect.

Walking Wounded - I really liked this at the time, but it doesn't do as much for me now. It's still good, but not world-changing. Also, the lyrics are a little too abstract for me to appreciate them as well.

Flipside - I used to HATE this. Then I liked it, and now I don't hate it, but I don't like it very much. Eminently skippable and a huge step down from the first five songs.

Big Deal - Yeah, I surprisingly don't really feel this one either. I love the lyrics in an entertaining way (especially the inner child bit), but they aren't really grabbing me like the first five songs. Maybe just because I haven't lived them like I have the others.

Mirrorball - Oh, God. I have always loved this song so much, because it's a beautiful song. Over the past few years, I've also come to adore the lyrics - "You never knew the teenage me, and you wouldn't believe the things you didn't see, some pretty, some ugly" hits hard for me, and overall I think it just has the best, most honest, most poetic lyrics on the album, which is saying a lot. But in the past few months, I've come to realize it's the story of my life. It's really quite jarring to realize that it's always been there in the background while I ended up living it out. Though I haven't murdered anyone or joined a band.

Good Cop, Bad Cop - Ohhhhh, man. I reached for this when my (then untreated, undiagnosed) depression worsened at age 13. "It's wrong to feel this way, I know it's wrong, I know it's bad, to only see what isn't there, to want and want and never have" was exactly what I felt then, and still what I feel now. It's especially effective as part of the one-two punch with Mirrorball. I am assuming Tracey's struggled with mental illness somehow, because I don't know how anyone who hadn't could write these lyrics. By the same token, I would guess that someone neurotypical wouldn't connect with it, but I think anyone with depression or a similar illness would immediately take it to heart.

Wrong (Todd Terry Remix) - This really doesn't sound much different from the original, which I guess goes to show you just how much they modeled it on Todd's sound. I get that it's a bonus track (when "bonus track" actually had meaning), but it doesn't add anything to the album.

Walking Wounded (Omni Trio Remix) - At least this one is different from the original, so it has a reason to be here, but honestly it's just not very good.

Final verdict: This is actually more uneven than I remembered, thanks largely to that big quality dip of Flipside and Big Deal. But when it's good, it is honestly incredible. Although it's drum'n'bass, it feels very much like an E•MO•TION/The Desired Effect-type synthpop album in terms of both style and substance. I think it'll always hold a special place in my heart. 8.5/10.

Highlight: It's tempting to say The Heart Remains a Child, but really, in terms of how much I've played it, and how much I value it, it has to be Mirrorball.

Song commentary: Madonna - Nothing Fails

I always associate Nothing Fails with Thanksgiving of 2010. Normally for Thanksgiving we went to my grandma's house, but by that time my mom was too ill to make the trip (only two and a half hours each way, but just getting in the car was a struggle for her), so that year we stayed home. I was just on the brink of getting into Madonna, and listening to samples on iTunes on my phone. I distinctly remember pulling up the Jason Nevins mix of Nothing Fails as I was standing on the stairs, about to go set up my computer to record Kylie in the Macy's parade. And though I was expecting to hear a pop bop, based on his Slayline and Clarko remixes, instead I got this rocky mix with Madge singing, "When I get lost in space I can return to this place, 'cause you're the one. Nothing fails, no more fears. Nothing fails, you've washed away my tears." It was so totally in keeping with what I was feeling, and what I needed to hear affirmed, at the time.

As I said, my mom died only a few weeks later, a week before Christmas. Nothing Fails was really the song that kept me going through all my grieving, and though Intervention is now my go-to Madonna song when I need encouragement, Nothing Fails still runs through my head sometimes. It's funny, because as I've discussed before, I grew up extremely religious, which was totally because of my mom. But now I haven't been to church in years, except for Christmas, and a couple times I went with my extended family, in both cases doing it just for the social bond. Yet when I was near suicidal a couple weeks ago, my impulse was to go to a church and pray. So "I'm not religious, but I feel so moved, makes me wanna pray, pray you'll always be here" is spot on for me, giving me that link between my present and my past, and the loss of my mom.

Then there's the first verse. About a year after losing my mom, I was head over heels in love with one of my best friends, who didn't feel the same way - and for a long time didn't even notice. "I'm in love with you, you silly thing, anyone can see" was so accurate, and I remember recalling it frequently as I walked around campus, trying to put her out of my head. It's kind of disconnected from the rest of the song, but it's important to me, albeit for a totally different reason.

So that's why I love Nothing Fails so much. It has a stronger musicality than most of the American Life album (much as I adore it), and fantastic lyrics. It really is one of Madonna's finest songs.

Originally posted to Popjustice on October 28, 2015.

Song commentary: Madonna - Intervention

For a long time, I considered Nothing Fails my favorite Madonna song. But as I was doing my scores for the Madonna rate, I realized that for as much as Nothing Fails has meant to me, Intervention has passed it.

The first Madonna CD I ever bought was True Blue, in December (maybe late November?) of 2010. Only a couple of weeks later, my mom went to the hospital after my dad and I couldn't wake her from her sleep of over 20 hours. And five days after that, she died, nearly two years after being diagnosed with cancer.

Now, growing up I was forbidden to listen to Madonna because she was too sexed-up - my mom was a very hard-line Catholic who thought everything from wearing a crop top to driving a gas guzzler was a sin. (My dad was a horrible hypocrite who confiscated my Kathy Reichs books for having sex scenes and F-bombs while he was hiding a porn addiction.) And so it was in the back of the superstitious part of my mind that maybe Madonna really was a horrible person, and by listening to her I'd somehow hastened my mom's death. But I remember going into the hospital that first day with I'll Remember running through my head (I'd bought Something to Remember by that time too). So I'd already begun to associate Madonna with comfort and grieving.

And she kind of gave me something to live for through the next several months - I had to cope with my mom's death, my first year of college, and a lot of other shit too, and having someone new to stan for was a welcome distraction.

Among that "other shit" was that when my mom died, the buffer she created for me disappeared, and my dad became emotionally abusive. He also decided to sell our house, the only house I could remember living in, which was also the house my mom and her siblings had grown up in. Add in that my mental disorders (depression, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, OCD, avoidant personality disorder, and borderline tendencies) were as yet undiagnosed and untreated, and you see... I was in a very painful, deeply unhappy period of my life.

And in the midst of that, the American Life album. It quickly became one of the three central albums of my life, the other two being Shakespears Sister's Hormonally Yours and Jenny Berggren's My Story. And though I still love the other two, they've lost some of their meaning for me, but American Life hasn't - it's still huge for me. No wonder it's my highest-rated album in any PJ rate. But anyway, at the time, I remember reading Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber, my assignment for my Literature of American Minorities course, and listening to My Story followed by American Life, and falling apart crying, because all of it was hitting home for me so hard.

The thing I found with the album was that no matter why I was upset - abuse, grieving, depression, career anxiety, academic stress - it had something to say to me. So I got in the habit of putting it on whenever I was having a hard time. For obvious reasons, the Nothing Fails / Intervention / X-Static Process trilogy struck a chord for me, big-time. For a long time, Nothing Fails was the big one for me, for reasons I'll explain when the time comes. But over the years, Intervention has overtaken it, I think because it's an even more universal message, and one that's really beautiful and powerful in its simplicity.

Right now, I'm going through an incredibly painful breakup - one that I hoped and thought I would never have to go through - and I originally turned to Love Spent as an expression of my anger, but now I'm listening to Intervention and crying at the lyrics. "I know the road seems lonely, but that's just Satan's game"... what a powerful sentiment, especially now as I struggle with being single again, but it's one that's empowered me for a long time. Because of my SA and AvPD, and to a lesser extent my BPD, I have a tremendously difficult time making friends and forming relationships and spent - still spend - a great deal of time feeling friendless and wondering what's wrong with me. That lyric has been a great comfort to me, a reminder that sometimes love is hidden, not absent, and that even when it's not enough, better love may be coming up for me, further down that road.

Intervention has given me so much comfort over the years, and at times it's even felt like a message from my mom herself. Through so many situations that I needed to escape, it's the one I've come back to, even more than the rest of the album - and literally every song on the album except for Easy Ride is one that's taken on a lot of importance for me at some point.

I know, I know, there is nothing to fear, and I know that love will take us away from here.

Wherever "here" is. Whatever I fear.

Thank you, Madonna.

Originally posted to Popjustice on October 24, 2015.

Song commentary: Little Boots - Strangers

Lyrically, Strangers has always fascinated me. When I first got the Nocturnes album, I'd never been in a real relationship, and now that I've had and lost one, I still can't quite connect to it, because I'm too angry with my ex to even consider "dancing like strangers" with her if I ever bumped into her, though certainly "I knew [her] so well" and "we used to hold our bodies tight." But I love that idea of happening to cross paths with an old love, and trying to reconcile the past with the immediate present. It's a bit Before Sunset, isn't it?

But I appreciate it most for its aesthetic appeal. Something about the backing track and the vocal production has always appealed to me. It's a bit dream-pop, but the sort of dream you wake up from feeling confused, like all the elements of the dream are twisting around you, like Winnie-the-Pooh in the Heffalumps and Woozles scene, and it feels a little disconcerting even though it was sort of a nice dream. I guess that's fitting considering the lyrics. It also sounds like the last song of the night played at a mildly seedy club, as almost everyone's filtered out and you've only stayed because you've nothing else to do and don't really look forward to going home to an empty apartment. (Surprisingly, this is not an experience I've actually had ... but only because I've never gone clubbing, lolz.)

I played Nocturnes a LOT driving to and from work my senior year of undergrad, meaning that I heard a lot of it on near-empty highways after midnight (I worked the night shift), which is totally appropriate to its lyrics and its mood. Strangers is the one that always felt like it fit that time best, along with All for You, and even more than Motorway.

The first time I really paid attention to it, though, was one night when I was driving around three different parking lots looking for just one open spot, and eventually giving up and parking in the lot a half mile from my dorm, so that's the night I always associate with it! I can totally still see the dining hall and rows of cars when I close my eyes during the chorus.

Originally posted to Popjustice on January 23.

Song commentary: Little Boots - Real Girl

I've written commentary for a few songs that are really important to me over on Popjustice. I'm going to be posting them here for posterity. This one is from just last night.

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When I first saw the song title Real Girl, my mind naturally leapt to the Mutya Buena song. But the topic of this song is quite different - rather than an affirmation that “I never pretend to be someone I’m not,” it's an outcry against the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype and its ilk, and a warning and plea to a partner who is unable or unwilling to acknowledge that the speaker is a real human, with all the messiness that entails. To quote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: “I’m not a concept. I’m just a fucked-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind.” And that... really hit home for me, way more than Mutya’s song - which I related to enough to put in a recent selfmix.

I have talked at great length about my recent breakup from my ex-partner, and guess what motherfuckers, you’re going to hear about it some more. But I have deliberately kept very quiet on PJ up till now about another part of myself, because I’ve seen more than a biT of bigotry on here around the topic. But some people here already know it or have deduced it, and I talk about it at length on my Twitter and Tumblr and my “identities” essay linked to in my signature, so I may as well open up about it now.

I say in my signature that I’m PJ’s token lesbian, which is true. But the part of that I've never explicitly stated - though I’ve talked around it in a plug.dj session or two - is that I am, specifically, a trans woman.

I’ve been on hormone replacement therapy for about nine months now, and though I have breasts, and my legs have changed shape, I still mostly look like a boy, which is a real blow to my self-esteem, because I've always hated the way I look, and I think if I could just look more like the girl I really am, I’d be happier about it. Moreover, as a consequence of that, I still present as male at work and in most face-to-face situations (and for my classes, even though they’re online, as they're tied to my name on record). In other words, I’m treated as a boy when I’m anything but, and I’m always afraid that people who do address me as female see me as less female than a cis woman, when I’m truly as much a girl as any other. “All I really need, I wanna stop pretending ... Could you treat me like a real girl? Won’t you tell me that I'm worth more?”

That lyric goes double for my ex. By the time we got together, I'd been questioning my gender identity for a while, and at the time I identified as genderfluid: occasionally male or female, but usually agender. (Looking back, I think that was a period I had to go through to arrive at who I was meant to be.) About two months into the relationship, I realized that I was much more of a woman than a man, and I needed to chemically and socially transition. She was the first person I told, even before my family or my counselor. And for a very long time, she was my #1 supporter. She treated me like a girl even more than I did, at times catching me off guard when she casually referred to me as “she” when I was still correcting myself with my pronouns.

Then that began to unravel as I came closer and closer to my coming out on National Coming Out Day, this past October. She’s panromantic and refuses to come out of the closet (or even to open the damn door), and was terrified about being with me as a woman. And I believe that, on top of our other problems (miscommunication, differing life goals, wanting different levels of emotional intimacy, different priorities...) was what led her to leave me just over a week after I came out. Although we’d been talking about breaking up for four months at that point, it was really abrupt, just forty minutes after she’d asked if we could spend the weekend together as we often did, and with no prior warning the days leading up to it. I’d thought we were doing great and starting to overcome our problems.

So along with everything else I lost when she left me – my best friend, my “life” partner, my surrogate family, my confidante – I lost the person who had given me the most support and affirmation around my gender transition. “Could you treat me like a real girl? Isn’t that what you're here for?”

But somewhat ironically, in other ways – many of the ways the song describes – she hadn't treated me like a real girl. She admitted that part of why she'd wanted to get with me had been to prove to the world that someone could find her attractive. “I’m not a fantasy, I’m not some kind of Holy Ghost.” She had assumed that I wanted just what she wanted and thought just the way she thought, because she thought everyone did. “I didn’t promise I’d be perfect, didn't promise that I’d play the game.” She had thought we could avoid ever having a fight, because she expected the relationship to be perfect, and was totally unequipped to have to put in any work. “Were you hoping I’d be flawless? Were you wishing on a movie star?”

Now, I finally got around to listening to Working Girl two or three weeks after the breakup, as I recall. And there was Real Girl, packaging up all these troubles in one song - and it was a bauxp to boot. It was, and is, exactly the right song at the right time for me.

Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

Released: January 29, 2013

Purchased: Some time in 2013 from Amazon MP3, when it was on sale for $2

First Thoughts: I've always really liked this one. I had heard of Tegan and Sara before, but never heard them, not being much of a rock fan. (I still haven't managed to listen to any of their other albums. Oop.) I group it in with Ellie Goulding's Lights and Nicola Roberts' Cinderella's Eyes as slightly left-of-center, arty, but still radio-friendly pop.

Playthrough:

Closer - I believe this is their biggest hit to date? Understandably so. It is a bit of a choon, though not as high-octane as it could be. I'd like to hear an Almighty-style remix of it. (I have the limited edition, stupidly expensive 12", and all the mixes are dubstep and shit.) It's really catchy and sort of an '80s throwback, but not in the obvious way a lot of recent-ish songs are.

Goodbye Goodbye - This keeps up the tempo and the mood of Closer. Even though it's a breakup song, it's quite energetic and even happy - the careless "fuck you, I'm too pretty for this" sort of breakup song, rather than a sad or angry one.

I Was a Fool - Whoa, the tempo drops way down on this one. It's a beautiful song, though not one that really keeps me coming back like the first two, and badly positioned on the album since it interrupts that energy. That being said, the lyrics are heartbreaking and wonderful.

I'm Not Your Hero - A very good song about keeping your expectations for someone realistic. This would have followed on marvelously from Goodbye Goodbye sound-wise. I wouldn't have chosen it as a single, but it's not bad or anything.

Drove Me Wild - The closest we get to a real banger on here. It would have been a great single. I like to imagine driving down a highway on a nice sunny early-summer day listening to this with the top down or the sunroof open (regrettably, my car is not a convertible, nor does it have a sunroof) and a special someone in the passenger seat. Actually, better for them to be driving and me to be the passenger. Yeah.

How Come You Don't Want Me Now - If Goodbye is the carefree breakup song and Fool is the sad one, this is the angry, sort of spiteful one. The sound stands in contrast to those lyrics, though - it's just as sing-along-able as Closer/Goodbye/Wild. Very Icona Pop, actually, only with totally different production obvi.

I Couldn't Be Your Friend - One of the less memorable songs on the album. The lyrics are about a relatable (especially for me) situation, but don't quite hit home the way Fool does.

Love They Say - This is kind of sad for me, because I associate it with my troubled relationship with my ex, and how in love with her I was ("The first time I saw your face, I knew that I was meant for you"). It's about that kind of relationship - challenging but still loving - and how it can still grow and flourish, and in that way it's a great counterpart to the breakup songs. Musically, it's one of my favorites. The verses are lovely, and it's impossible to not pay attention to it when that chorus comes in.

Now I'm All Messed Up - This definitely sounds like the start of the coda to the album. I never really remember it past the chorus, but it's serviceable.

Shock to Your System - This couldn't have served as anything but the last track on the album (at least the standard version). It's quite basic and fades into the background, as opposed to the attention-grabbing Closer/Goodbye/Wild/Say. I don't even remember anything about it beyond "you got a shock to your system" and the closing "what you are is lonely."

Final verdict: It suffers a little bit from sameyness, but it's still really enjoyable. Very much a spring or autumn album. I really hope they develop and continue to go in this direction for their next album, because if they fixed the flaws here they could give us something really incredible. Let's say 8/10.

Highlight: Closer is my real favorite, because despite being a little insubstantive, it's so easy to listen to, but since everybody knows that one: Love They Say.

The 68 best albums of all time. OF ALL TIME.

I have just sat down and made a list of my favorite albums - mostly ones that I consider my favorites now, but also some old favorites that I still enjoy, and not just nostalgically. I restricted myself to one album per artist (a rule I broke for Madonna, because she's Madonna, and bent for solo acts out of a group), and didn't consider compilations. Some have some great personal meaning for me; others just have great fucking tunes.

I ended up with sixty-fucking-eight. (Could have ended up with more; that was me being strict! Left out some gems like the Princess Diaries soundtrack.)

So here they are in alphabetical order:

1. A*Teens - Teen Spirit
2. Ace of Base - Da Capo
3. Agnes - Dance Love Pop
4. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
5. Alizée - Une enfant du siècle
6. Amanda Marshall - Amanda Marshall
7. Amy Grant - Heart in Motion
8. Annie Lennox - Diva
9. Avalon - A Maze of Grace
10. Bananarama - Drama
11. Billie Piper - Walk of Life
12. Carly Rae Jepsen - Kiss
13. Chely Wright - Single White Female
14. Clare Maguire - Light After Dark
15. CocknBullKid - Adulthood
16. The Corrs - Borrowed Heaven
17. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
18. Ellie Goulding - Lights
19. Everything But the Girl - Walking Wounded
20. Geri Halliwell - Schizophonic
21. Gina G - Fresh!
22. Girls Aloud - Tangled Up
23. Heather Small - Proud
24. Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814
25. Jennifer Lopez - LOVE?
26. Jenny Berggren - My Story
27. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
28. Kylie Minogue - X
29. La Roux - La Roux
30. Lady Gaga - Born This Way
31. Le Kid - Oh Alright!
32. Little Boots - Nocturnes
33. Lorie - Rester la même
34. Madonna - American Life
35. Madonna - True Blue
36. Mandy Moore - Mandy Moore
37. The Manhattan Transfer - Bodies and Souls
38. Marina and the Diamonds - Electra Heart
39. Mylène Farmer - Innamoramento
40. Myra - Myra
41. Nadine Coyle - Insatiable
42. Natalie Cole - Unforgettable... With Love
43. Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi
44. Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes
45. Nina Gordon - Tonight and the Rest of My Life
46. Play - Under My Skin
47. Plumb - candycoatedwaterdrops
48. Priscilla - Une fille comme moi
49. Rachel Stevens - Come and Get It
50. Robyn - Body Talk
51. Savage Garden - Affirmation
52. Scooch - Four Sure
53. Selena Gomez and the Scene - When the Sun Goes Down
54. September - September (bent the compilation rule for this since it was her US debut)
55. Shakespears Sister - Hormonally Yours
56. Shania Twain - Up!
57. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Make a Scene
58. Spice Girls - Spiceworld
59. Susan Ashton - A Distant Call
60. Swing Out Sister - Kaleidoscope World
61. Taylor Swift - 1989
62. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
63. Timoteij - Längtan
64. various artists - Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack
65. Velvet - The Queen
66. West End Girls - Goes Petshopping
67. Whitney Houston - Whitney
68. Wilson Phillips - Wilson Phillips

And here's the very top tier, roughly ranked:

1. Marina and the Diamonds - Electra Heart
2. Clare Maguire - Light After Dark
3. Madonna - American Life
4. Madonna - True Blue
5. Whitney Houston - Whitney
6. Rachel Stevens - Come and Get It
7. Scooch - Four Sure
8. Velvet - The Queen
9. Spice Girls - Spiceworld
10. Shania Twain - Up!
11. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
12. A*Teens - Teen Spirit
13. Savage Garden - Affirmation
14. Myra - Myra
15. Ellie Goulding - Lights
16. Timoteij - Längtan
17. Everything But the Girl - Walking Wounded
18. Little Boots - Nocturnes
19. Mylène Farmer - Innamoramento
20. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

(Madonna taking two spots in the top five. Only a legend.)

I will be endeavoring to review each one of these damn albums on this blog. I'll link them above when I have.

Little Boots - Hands

Released: March 2, 2010

Purchased: October 2010 from Amazon.com

First Thoughts: I would have sworn this was from 2009. It has the sound of 2009 all over it. Luckily, 2009-2010 was one of my absolute favorite times in British music. (La Roux! Ellie Goulding! The return of Sophie Ellis-Bextor!) I always associate this album with my first year of college, especially Remedy, which I distinctly remember having stuck in my head one day in my Brit Lit class.

Playthrough:

New in Town - One of the most poppy songs on the album. I totally understand why it made its way onto a couple of soundtracks: it sounds like that's what it was meant for. Vicky's vocals are not very good at times, to the point that it makes it a little hard to listen to, but she compensates for it with great production.

Earthquake - My favorite at the time, and a worthy single choice even though it was destined to flop. It's the epitome of wonky pop, which is really what Vicky does best. Plus, it indirectly gave us this iconic Twitter exchange.

Stuck on Repeat - This is a surprisingly generic club track, but it has a great hook.

Click - This is where we really get a taste of how most of the album sounds. It's poppy, slightly atmospheric, and a little gritty.

Remedy - Yes slay me quen. Vicky's poppiest song to date. She wrote and produced it with RedOne, at the time newly famous from producing Just Dance and Poker Face. It does have a bit of the "RedOne on autopilot" thing, but it sounds like older, A*Teens-era RedOne, before he stopped trying and just started writing/producing Poker Face over and over. Her vocals are also pretty good on this one - not as good as on Nocturnes, but better than on the first four tracks. Her voice takes on a lovely sweet quality that works really well with the song. And yeah, lyrically it is Just Dance 2.0, but it manages to sound a little deeper, or at least like they tried harder.

Meddle - My absolute least favorite on the album. It's mostly just noise - it sounds like Vicky was trying to be ~artistic~ at the expense of pleasant production and melody. Which is a shame, because the hook is great.

Ghost - I think she was going for something ethereal and a little creepy, but it ended up cutesy. It's really cute, actually, which is a little strange given the lyrics about a distant partner. It's enjoyable when I'm in the mood for it, but I wasn't tonight, so I had to skip it.

Mathematics - A very typical Little Boots song, a pop melody overlaid with a lot of 2010 wonky-pop trickery. Not her best effort, and pretty fillery, but interesting if nothing else. (Interesting filler, now there's a concept.)

Symmetry - I gather this isn't popular among her fans, but I have no idea why. It's a joy! It features Phil Oakey from The Human League (one of Vicky's major influences) as her duet partner, which is great, though since his voice is so much more powerful and distinctive than Vicky's (and better controlled), she ends up seeming like the featured artist on her own song.

Tune Into My Heart - You could call this filler too, but I've always loved it. It's another more bubblegummy moment on the album. Has Vicky's stamp all over it: unusual analogy for a loving but troubled relationship. No wonder I love it, when I put it like that. It actually would have been a very good choice for a single, probably better than Earthquake. It's not at all representative of the album, but it would have appealed to a wider audience.

Hearts Collide - I barely remember how this went aside from "baaaby, when our hearts collide," but it's nice. I didn't feel the need to skip it like Meddle, Ghost, and Mathematics.

No Brakes - This is really pretty. Very similar to what she'd do on Nocturnes: a midtempo that somehow sounds like a ballad. The big downfall, again, is her voice. A stronger vocalist could carry the chorus much better and make the song even more appealing.

Hands - I think this is the first time I've ever listened to this all the way through, largely because it's a hidden track and I didn't feel like fast-forwarding through the silence after No Brakes, but partly because it's pretty shit. It's obviously Vicky's attempt at aping Kate Bush, from the vocal style to the piano accompaniment, and even evident in the songwriting. But vocal tricks that are merely annoying from Kate are downright screechy with Vicky, and the lyrics hold promise but sound totally half-assed.

Final verdict: As you can probably tell, the absolute biggest problem with this album is Vicky's voice. She sounds fine (though still not great) on Nocturnes, but I had honestly forgotten how bad she sounded here. But honestly, that's a testament to how good the songs are, at least for the most part. It's a shame that Elektra was so wrapped up in presenting her as the British Lady Gaga - although it gave us some great stuff like Remedy, I think ultimately it cramped her creativity and led to the songs not being as well developed as they could have been. Then again, it seems to be what pulled her away from the total left-field thing heard on Meddle, so we should probably be thankful for it. As long as you can do with the shaky vocals, this is a tremendously solid album that's unjustly overlooked and even maligned. 8.5/10.

Highlight: I'm gonna have to go with Remedy. It's an obvious choice, and not the most truly Little Boots, but it is definitely the best thing here.

Afterschool - Flashback

Released: June 20, 2012

Purchased: Hahaha. Acquired just under a month ago.

First Thoughts: This was the first K-pop thing I ever downloaded. The kind of sad thing is I think it's actually better than The Best of Afterschool.

Playthrough:

Rip Off - Very generic club banger. Perfectly acceptable, but nothing I'd go out of my way to listen to.

Flashback - Their most popular song, and understandably so. It's still a little generic, but it has the fantastic "b-b-b-boy I miss you" hook. Sounds a lot like Girls Aloud's On the Metro and Every Now and Then. And I'm always a slut for dubstep breakdowns.

Eyeline (Nana solo) - Sounds like a Dannii song. Like Rip Off, not something I'll probably ever seek out, but very enjoyable while it's playing.

Sonmoksigye (English: Wristwatch) - This is absolutely gorgeous. I have no idea which ones are singing lead on this, but they do a beautiful job with their lovely, smooth voices (Gloria Estefan teas). Beautiful melody too. I can imagine it as the closing song of a Princess Diaries-type teen romcom.

Timeless (JungA/Raina duet) - This reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what. It's more MOR than the rest of the EP, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's a nice midtempo that shows their flexibility.

Final verdict: It doesn't have anything in particular that no other album has, but it made for a very nice introduction to the group. I like it better than 90% of the K-pop I've heard. 7.5/10.

Highlight: This slice of beauty.

Myra - Myra

Released: 2001

Purchased: My dad got a free promo copy since he wrote for the All Music Guide. Well, by this time he didn't anymore, but Disney apparently hadn't realized it.

First Thoughts: God, I love this album so fucking much. It was the album of my fourth to sixth grade years, even more than Teen Spirit. Actually, I knew the Spanish version, Milagros, a little better, because I lost my copy of the English version for several months. I am soooo looking forward to revisiting it. Let's get started...

Playthrough:

Lie, Lie, Lie - This doesn't sound exactly like your typical The Matrix song, but I'm not complaining. This was one of my very favorites. It's more urban-sounding, for lack of a better term, than the rest of the album. The middle 8 is especially incredible, especially that "I wanted youuuuuuu" at the very end. The accompanying key change absolutely made my nine-year-old life, even though I was years away from even knowing what the fuck a key change was. I preferred the Spanish version, as I did with, uh, almost all of the songs, and I still do, but the English version is still a 10.

Candy Boy - Faintly ridiculous lyrics about a candy metaphor, which got even worse in translation to Spanish, when they just became generic lyrics about "mi bailador" (my dancer)... I guess you could call it filler, but it's a total sugar high, to steal one of its lyrics.

Like a Girl in Love - Not as exciting as most of the album, but that minor key is a great touch, and the acoustic guitar at the beginning is one of the album's most remarkable moments. I imagine this is/was a favorite for a lot of people, just not me.

Miracles Happen (When You Believe) - Myra's one and only hit ("hit"), which so many people from my generation rightly remember fondly from its usage in The Princess Diaries. I listened to this on repeat for fucking EVER at the time, to the point that my dad complained about it just as incessantly. Five minutes seems incredibly long for a pop song to me now, but it doesn't seem long at all. By the way, it was written by two incredible pop songwriters: Eliot Kennedy (who's worked with Dannii, Atomic Kitten, the Spice Girls, S Club 7, and Céline ... but most importantly Billie Piper on Day & Night and Something Deep Inside) and Pam Sheyne (who's done stuff for Xtina, The Sats, M2M, Point of Grace, and God knows who else, and was the vocalist behind Rochelle on Almighty Records). It deserves every bit of praise it's ever gotten. The only pity is that the dancier "Miracle Mix," used for Myra's cameo on Port Charles, was never released except on an incredibly rare promo CD single.

Bye-Bye My Love - By no means bad, but a definite dip in quality. Christina-lite. I liked it at the time; I usually skip it now, just to get to the incredible next track.

25 Hours a Day - Sure, the lyrics are ridiculous, and it sounds totally out of place on the album. It's a breezy, Please Yourself-era Bananarama / Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me-era Gloria Estefan type song. Luckily, that's the exact kind of song I have a soft spot for if it's produced well - and this is produced incredibly well. Again, the Spanish version far exceeds the English version, but it's comparing a 9.5 to a 10.

Wishing on the Same Star - Ugh, fuck off, Diane Warren. The requisite ballad. It's a really pretty song, but the production leaves so much to be desired. I had no interest in hearing Myra do something like this when I was nine, and I'm not that much more interested now.

Dancing in the Street - Ah yes, my first encounter with Myra, from the Recess: School's Out soundtrack. Like Miracles Happen, I played it relentlessly, though I eventually tired of it. Better than the vast majority of covers of this classic, and miles better than Atomic Kitten's version, which the UK got instead as a single for the Recess soundtrack. It sounds totally modernized (well, modern to 2001). A really good example of what you can do with a cover.

Where You At? - This is where the album enters its darker section, both lyrically and musically. I mean, it's not dark by any means, it's just not as ebullient as what comes before. Listening to it now, it strikes me that it's an attempt to ape Britney, but honestly it's better than 90% of what Britney shat out on her first three albums. Very cool electronic touches. This one could genuinely have been a single to mainstream radio. It's a bit Stacie Orrico.

Girls Like Boyz - Echh. I almost always used to skip this one (the Spanish version is slightly more bearable, mainly because I can't understand the lyrics as well), and it's the most fillery thing here. Truly, truly vapid lyrics and an uninspired melody. My tendency to wipe this one from my memory explains why I made the "darker section" comment, since it's much more in the vein of Candy Boy than Where You At?

As If - This sounds so much like something I know, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Another old favorite, though it hasn't held up quite as well for me as Lie and Miracle. It's still a great song, though. Mikaila wishes she'd had something like it. Also, maybe the only song on the album where the English version is significantly better than the Spanish version.

Hanging Up on You - Oh my godddddddd. I loved this one so fucking much. That pre-chorus - "Now I'm so onto you... Am I getting through? Guess what I'm gonna do..." - is still incredible, with its little electric guitar riffs underneath it. I still don't understand what the second verse is supposed to mean (her friends were trying to set her up with her nasty ex? Huh?), but this is legitimately the catchiest thing on here. Btw, I always associate it with my mom's comment that she always expected the last line of the chorus to go "So I'm hangin' up... You're dead" (to rhyme with "everything you said") instead of "So I'm hangin' up... Goodbye!" which in fairness is a pretty bad lyric.

Dreams - Okay, the other slowie on the album, which if memory serves was originally going to be the title track (pretty sure I saw an ad in another Disney CD mentioning "her upcoming album Dreams"). Unlike Same Star, though, it's pretty convincing. It actually does a better job of showing off her truly impressive voice despite having less vocal acrobatics. It's very "soft AC radio," but also very "last dance at junior prom." I enjoy it.

Japanese bonus tracks:

Step Into the Light - This was used in a Japanese shampoo commercial, which is random, but it's a worthy addition to the album. More rock and not as electronic as the other songs, which makes it stand out a little (at least they had the grace to stick it on as the first track). I imagine if she'd made it to a second album this would have been the lead US single. Forever bitter she didn't get that second album...

You're the Dream - The theme song for the 2001 Japanese Special Olympics. How random. It's not very good. Obviously a rip on Gloria's Reach, and a totally uninspired one.

Lie, Lie, Lie (Main Stream Mix) - This is great. Makes it into an A+ dance track.

Lie, Lie, Lie (SCHWEITZER Remix) - More trancey/bigroom than the Main Stream Mix, but just as enjoyable and anthemic.

Lie, Lie, Lie (DJ Akim in the 90's Mix) - Not nearly as effective in making it into a freestyle-ish track as the two other mixes are in making it into their respective genres. Still, a bit of a bop.

Final verdict: I mean, this is well and truly one of the milestone albums of my life, so I'm probably not able to be as objective as I'd like. But listening to it now, it still sounds just as fresh and invigorating as when I was younger. There is not a single bad song here - Girls Like Boyz is the worst, and it's still a 6.5/10. Besides, most of the songs are 9+. It literally set the template for the Disney girl albums to come - but it did it way better than any of them have, even including my beloved Metamorphosis and When the Sun Goes Down. In short: fucking incredible. Its total lack of recognition is a mark of the true evils of society. 10/10.

Highlight: YOU SHOWED ME FAITH IS NOT BLIND, I DON'T NEED WINGS TO HELP ME FLY

O, en español:

Avalon - A Maze of Grace

I realize Popjustice isn't exactly the most Contemporary Christian-oriented music forum out there, but upon revisiting this album I felt a need to do a lil write-up.

(How unspeakably bad is that styling on the cover? Oh my...)

Released: Dec. 11, 1997

Purchased: Bit by bit from iTunes when I was in middle school

Playthrough:

Testify to Love - I bet all of them wake up every day thanking the Lord't they got their hands on this, considering what a smash it was (their biggest hit to date, by far). And deservedly so - it's not their most interesting song by any means, but it is a basic BAUXP.

A World Away - I learned this one on piano back when I took lessons. It's kind of fillery, but it's enjoyable. With more effort in the production, it could've been the best thing on the album.

A Maze of Grace - I bet they thought this was so clever. It took me literally years to get the title ("amazing grace" / "a maze of grace"). It's really dated, but I imagine it sounded fantastic at the time. I loved it when I was getting into them. It has a really solid structure and arrangement; it's just the production that's lacking.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door - A banger, though oddly generic. Probably the hookiest thing on the album.

Adonai - My favorite Avaballad, which is saying something considering they've got Can't Live a Day and the superb I Don't Want to Go. Nikki's voice is incredible here. I can understand why she left the group to go solo - she got three leads on this album (this one, A World Away, and The Move), but judging by their next album, I'd bet that by the time she left, Avalon was already becoming "Janna and her backup singers" and she felt underused. To be fair, Janna is technically a far better vocalist than Nikki, or indeed anyone else who's ever been in Avalon, but she doesn't have Nikki's range, nor the gorgeous clear quality of Nikki's voice. Only a shame Nikki's career went down the shitter faster than you can say "a Lisa Scott-Lee tea," and never managed to climb out. Anyway, this song is really gorgeous - that key change is everything.

Speed of Light - Like A Maze of Grace, this had to have been excellent at the time, but it's just so dated that it's hard to hear it as anything but an artifact of its time now. Nonetheless it's still a bop.

The Move - Okay, this really needed a better chorus. "Rising from the ashes is the flame ... THE MOOOOOVE" repeated over and over is so half-assed. That being said, it's a real pop moment, helped again by an awesome performance from Nikki.

Reason Enough - I remembered this as a lot more boring than it is. The soon-to-be-requisite Jannaballad, though it's actually a midtempo. It's a bit Donna Summer melodically, and very Céline Dion production-wise.

Forgive + Forget - Easily the weak link here, but it's still perfectly good. It's just a little try-hard, and the unison vocals on the verses was an odd mistake considering Avalon's strength was always their harmonies.

Dreams I Dream for You - Pretty generic, but it has nice vocals and is a really pleasant listen. Again, could have been something really special if they'd fleshed it out more, but as it stands it's still good.

Final verdict: In every single case, when I've gone back to one of the Christian albums I listened to in middle school, they haven't been nearly as good as I remembered, even the ones I loved most (Avalon's Oxygen, ZOEgirl's Room to Breathe, Rebecca St. James' Transform). So I was pretty much dumbfound when I realized this is actually better than I remembered, and even better than I thought at the time. Their finest album for sure - an incredibly solid pure pop album in the vein of The Corrs or even Carly Rae Jepsen. 9/10.

Highlight: Adonai is really my favorite, but I expect The Move (my second-favorite) is the one that will appeal to PJ the most.

The Corrs - In Blue

Released: July 13, 2000

Purchased: Five or six years ago at Barnes & Noble. Saw it in the budget section and took it over to the listening station because I'd heard Sixpence None the Richer compared to them, and liked what I heard.

Playthrough:

Breathless - I think there's a good argument to be made that this was their artistic peak to date, though it's not my favorite on the album. It's really catchy, and one of their most exoteric moments, but still identifiably Corrs.

Give Me a Reason - This is so of its time, but I love it anyway. It's sort of generic, but a great generic song is still a great song. The Cutfather and Joe remix is a little better than the original mix.

Somebody for Someone - Unusually dark theme for a Corrs song, but it fits well in their aesthetic. It has a great melody, and I adore Sharon's "somebody's gotta make it right" BGVs. She really was criminally underused as a singer - she's by no means as skilled a vocalist as Andrea, but I love her tone.

Say - The first song on the album that doesn't totally do it for me. It's pleasant, but unremarkable. It sounds like a B-side, actually. It just doesn't fit in at this point on the album.

All the Love in the World - Wonderful production and performance that really enhance the melody. It's like The Corrs doing a Céline-type power ballad: Andrea's voice has its weaknesses, and it never quite explodes, but it has a big emotional punch. The only low point is the outro - the remix's outro is way better.

Radio - I know many fans prefer the original MTV Unplugged version, and though I really like that one (and the similar Live in Dublin version), I think I like this one more. It's got the angst of the original, but is a lot catchier - a proto-1989 tea.

Irresistible - I played this one to death and back when I got the album. It is such a summer anthem - breezy, fun, sweet. I'm still miffed it wasn't included on the Dreams comp.

One Night - I've only rarely made it all the way through this. I hesitate to call it noisy since it's so slow and soft, but I don't know what other word to use. It needs a much better melody - a rarity among Corrs songs. Well, at least it doesn't have Alejandro Sanz like the Spanish version (I can't stand his voice).

All in a Day - Pretty basic filler. Nothing wrong with it, but I never seek it out to listen to.

At Your Side - Another remake from the Unplugged session, but unlike Radio, it's very similar to the original, just a little more popped up. It's the most Talk on Corners song on the album, and it's kind of a nice link to their past at a time when they were overhauling their sound.

No More Cry - It's like a Katy Perry song: generic, basic, shoddy lyrics in spots, but effortlessly happy and so fun that it overcomes its flaws.

Rain - Another filler song. It really sounds like it was meant to be a B-side. I'd have liked for this and All in a Day to have been the Breathless B-sides in place of Head in the Air and Judy (neither of which needed to ever be released), with their places taken by the spectacular Make You Mine (instead of sentencing it to best-of album track) and Looking in the Eyes of Love from the bonus disc. That being said, it's perfectly fine. The syncopation in the chorus makes it stick in my head (kind of Amy Grant-like), though I don't remember the verses at all. But I don't understand why it's called Rain...

Give It All Up - The best Ace of Base imitation this side of Alejandro. The downside is that, unlike Alejandro, it hasn't really been integrated into the act's sound, so it sticks out on the album like Madonna on Instagram, and just comes off as an attempt to ape Ace of Base, with oddly processed vocals. Nonetheless: amazing.

Hurt Before - I took a long time to come around to this; it wasn't until the lyrics took on meaning for me that I started to really like it. It's nice, and Andrea's vocals are pretty good, but it does drag on a bit.

Rebel Heart - I spent some time as a narcissist... Ahem. This is an instrumental, and I'm not generally here for instrumentals, but it's really good for what it is.

Final verdict: Though it's certainly got its flaws, this is a really strong MOR-pop album, and a good example of how to change your sound and image fairly successfully. The songwriting isn't as strong as on their other albums, but the production is consistently great: they and Mutt Lange were a great match, though it's too bad there wasn't a David Foster song or two in there. With a little trimming and reworking (as described above), it's a really solid pop album, and it is a great introduction to the band. 7/10.

Highlight: I could easily go with Breathless, Irresistible, Give Me a Reason, or All in the Love in the World, but I'll toss the honor to my favorite album track.

Ace of Base - Da Capo

(the Japanese version!)

Released: September 2003

Purchased: Six or seven years ago on eBay.

Playthrough:

Unspeakable - I loved this and played the crap out of it when I bought it on iTunes as I was going through my Ace of Base phase in ninth or tenth grade. (I got the album in tenth or eleventh.) I remember specifically loving the "it's all so clear ... tooo ... meeeeee! ALLLLLLL!" bit and the key change. Now I don't really care for it, which is sad because I want to go back to being able to hear it as one of the greatest songs ever.

Beautiful Morning - Kind of obviously the "fuck, we need a viable single" track, but still extremely good. I've always loved the video too - beautifully filmed.

Remember the Words - It's appropriate my last review was of Hilary, because this is a very 2003 Disney-type track. The lyrics are meant well but sort of hopelessly basic ("remember the words, you are never on your own, out here alone"), and it mimics that The Matrix / Alain Bertoni production style perfectly. Would have fit in on Christy Carlson Romano's "album" or any early-'00s Disney soundtrack without anyone batting an eye.

Da Capo - Among their most dancey songs. It's a very good, catchy song - sort of like Kesha with less auto-tune - but the lyrics have always bothered me. It's like they took two different songs, one about being in love with someone who can't tell ("I'm telling you I am your friend / But you can't hear me in your dreams") and one about a relationship based purely on sex ("I'm your everlasting property"), and combined them without a further thought.

World Down Under - Another Matrix-type song. It's not as good as Morning or Da Capo, but it's more than serviceable, and among the more Ace of Base-ish songs on the album. The lyric "I believe in there's a world down under" has always bothered me though, because "I believe there's a world down under" or "I believe in a world down under" would have made perfect sense, but combining them doesn't.

Ordinary Day - This is my big discovery from replaying the album. I've never paid much attention to it before, but I'm loving it right now. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it's the only song Linn sings lead on. Though I love Jenny, I think Linn is marginally the better vocalist, and this is a pretty good showcase of her vocal abilities. It's a little bland, but it works for me. It's basically Don't Go Away 2.0 (and that's another one that only clicked with me fairly recently).

Wonderful Life - Of all the versions of this song I know (Kim Wilde, Tina Cousins, Lara Fabian), this is probably my favorite. It's far more upbeat and bright and shiny than the original or the other covers. It's also pretty much the only thing on the album that sounds like it could have been on Happy Nation, despite the group's explanation of the album title as meaning that they'd gone back to that sound. Then again, Happy Nation is by far my least favorite of their albums (not counting the dot group's album), so whatever.

Show Me Love - This was my favorite for a long time, and may still be. It takes the smooth sound of Flowers and runs with it. It's identifiably Ace of Base, but it could easily have been played on AC radio. Pity it wasn't a single.

What's the Name of the Game - Filler. They obviously try harkening back to the Living in Danger-type synth lines under the chorus, but it doesn't really work. It's not a BAD song, but it's obviously not as good as anything else on the album, or on Flowers for that matter.

Change with the Light - I was obsessed with this one too. It sounds exactly nothing like Ace of Base, but it's great, and they deliver it better than I can imagine anyone else doing. Jenny's and Ulf's voices are a perfect fit for the song, and it's exquisitely played and produced.

Hey Darling - I think this is one of the fan favorites. It's perfectly nice, but a little boring compared to most of the album.

The Juvenile - This would have been great as a Bond theme, shame that rat bastard Clive Davis yanked them from the project. That being said, outside of the Bond context it was a laughable choice as a single (especially a lead single, for God's sake...). I really love it - it actually has kind of a Tori sound to it, but darker - and I think it has great lyrics, but I absolutely cannot imagine hearing it on the radio.

Don't Stop - Basic bop done right. Sounds like it came off The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack, which isn't a bad thing. It doesn't shine as well as most of the main album, though.

Summer Days - All I can think is that it sounds like a demo. An almost-finished demo to be fair, but still, a demo. I've struggled to understand the lyrics for years, but I think I've finally got it, and it's about realizing you're in love with an old friend you're out of contact with. It sounds appropriately beachy, and for the most part the lyrics are fine; I just wish they'd polished it up a bit.

Beautiful Morning (Groove Radio Edit) - Nice idea but poorly done. Should've been replaced with the Junk&Function/M12 mix of Unspeakable, which is about 1000 times better.

Final verdict: If you've noticed all the references to Disney above, well, that's deliberate. I kept thinking as I played the album that it really, really sounds like AOB trying to ape the Disney sound perfected on albums like Myra's debut and the Princess Diaries soundtrack, often at the expense of their own sound. Luckily for them, I happen to love that sound. The songs themselves are at about their usual level, maybe a little lower than Flowers. This is probably my favorite of their albums, though I understand why the Happy Nation crowd didn't like it. 9/10.

Highlight: Show Me Love

Hilary Duff - Hilary Duff

Released: September 2004

Purchased: My mom got it for me shortly after its release (I'd guess October). I still remember getting out of school and going to the car to see it on the seat, and being so excited to listen to it when I got home. I hammered it very nearly as hard as Metamorphosis - tween/teen me was really into Hilary despite her being so uncool.

Playthrough:

Fly was a big song for me in middle school, as I started to be alienated from my classmates (and as my depression flared up again, though I didn't know at the time that was what it was). It's pleasant, but basically a Kara DioGuardi-by-the-numbers song. Not very inspired, and a little faceless.

Do You Want Me is sort of absurd with its syncopation, and it comes across as Hilary trying to be a safer version of Avril and not really succeeding. Not terrible, though.

Weird wasn't one of my favorites then, and it's even less so now. It's noisy.

I also didn't like Hide Away, but it's one of the better songs on the album to me now. Her vocals are weak in spots, though.

I still don't understand what compelled Hilary and Haylie to write a song called Mr. James Dean, but it's very enjoyable despite the bad vocals in the chorus. Very slightly like Roxette. Ariana could NEVER.

Underneath This Smile is where the vocals really get bad, and it's not much of a tune.

Dangerous to Know has a sort of sinister beauty, even though its lyrics don't make a lot of sense.

Who's That Girl is still a gem. Her vocals are thin, but the emotion actually seems genuine, unlike much of the album. Just checked Wikipedia, and it was co-written by Andreas Carlsson, just as I suspected.

Shine is pretty shit.

I Am is still that bop. Apparently it was written by Diane Warren, which surprises me given how basic the lyrics are, but it does have her melodic touch.

The Getaway is awfully good. I remember being happy it was included on Most Wanted even though it wasn't a single. It has some of the better lyrics on the album.

Cry is probably the worst song of Hilary's career. Absolutely no melody.

I loved Haters at the time, but it hasn't aged well at all. Her vocal inflection on "it all goes on behind closed doors" is great, though, and I loved scandalizing my mom with that lyric.

Rock This World is obviously out of a second-rate teen movie (which I've still never seen), but goddamn if it's not one of the album highlights. I think because even though it goes against Hilary's sparkly-spunky-shiny ethos and is totally unconvincing as a transition to Avrilness, it obviously has some real energy behind the recording.

I've included Someone's Watching Over Me in several playlists over the years. Totally should've been a single worldwide, not just in Australia - it's gorgeous. Maybe her best "ballad" (midtempo) to date.

The download I have is sourced from iTunes, which has a very different mix of Jericho than what's on the CD. It's 3:53 as opposed to 3:59 and has a cold intro, as opposed to the one I know, which has a longer intro with a guitar lick that sounds like the State Farm Insurance jingle. (CD mix / iTunes mix) This mix is way too harsh-sounding to me; I still like the one I knew, though. Her vocals aren't up to snuff, but it's a good pop ditty.

The Last Song is a very pseudo-deep closer, but it's good for what it is.

Final verdict: This is not nearly as good as I remember it being, which is really kind of sad. I did always like Metamorphosis better, but I remember jamming out to this one too. It could have been a five-song EP and the world wouldn't really have lost anything.

Highlight: Someone's Watching Over Me

[comment on March 2, 2015: Looking back at my Hilary review (to copy and paste it for my next post), I have to wonder what exactly I was on. Ariana could never what? Why would I of all people have cared about Hilary being uncool? And just how did I know Andreas Carlsson wrote Who's That Girl? Whatever, me.]