Mylène Farmer - Innamoramento

Released: 1999

Purchased: On SwapaCD, three or four years ago, I don't even fuckin' know anymore

Playthrough:

L'amour naissant - Absolutely gorgeous. I don't even have the words to describe it. I remember having to keep myself from listening to it too much when I got the album because I knew if I did, it'd lose its magic. One of Mylène's best ever vocal performances.

L'âme-stram-gram - Not one of her best singles, but she's got so many incredible singles that's not saying a lot. It's okay, but it comes across as filler to me (which is funny for a single).

Pas le temps de vivre - Elevator music, but again, really beautiful. It's easy to get lost in it, even though I barely remember it once it ends.

Dessine-moi un mouton - The album's big rock track. Definitely deserved to be a single in its own right, not off the live album.

Je te rends ton amour - Pas le temps de vivre, partie deux. But with a little twist melodically. It has the slightly off-kilter feeling of a lot of her earlier songs.

Méfie-toi - Also should've been a single. The closest the album gets to pure pop, but with a little undercurrent of anger.

Innamoramento - More elevator music. This one always irritates me because the chorus gets stuck in my head, but I can't remember quite how it goes.

Optimistique-moi - The spacey dance song, essentially this album's Dégénération. And creepy oedipal lyrics, just as we've all come to expect from Mylène.

Serais-tu là? - Has a very Cyndi Lauper-ish melody, but could do with being more memorable.

Consentement - Not much of a song.

Et si viellir m'était conté? - Er, likewise. I think I might've tuned out the album at this point, because I don't really remember any of the last three songs. I had to look them all up on iTunes and play the samples back.

Souviens-toi du jour... - Now, THIS one. I somehow completely forgot how incredible this song is. Vocals right up near the level of L'amour naissant, a beautiful melody, and perhaps the best production on the entire album. I remember listening to it on repeat for literally hours - it sends chills up my spine sometimes.

Mylenium - Basically a bonus track. It's just ambient electronic music and Mylène singing the word "innamoramento" over and over.

Verdict: I like this one a lot more than that review might lead you to believe, maybe because I do just tune it out when it gets boring (it's nice background music), or maybe just because its highlights are so incredible they outweigh the problem spots. It's been compared a lot to Ray of Light, which is appropriate in some ways, but I think it's more melodic and therefore more enjoyable, though it's also less electronic and more rock-oriented than Ray of Light. It's one of only two Mylène albums I can listen to from start to end without skipping anything (the other being its immediate predecessor, Anamorphosée), and unfortunately, at this point I can't see her topping it, since I haven't been too impressed by Bleu Noir and Monkey Me. This is one of those that I want to say every PJer should have. 9/10.

Standout: It's really close between L'amour naissant and Souviens-toi du jour, but I guess I ultimately have to go with the latter, not necessarily because I like it better, just because it's more accessible.

Kate Bush - The Red Shoes

Released: 1995

Purchased: Stole it from my dad a couple years ago.

Playthrough:

Rubberband Girl is Kate doing fun pop, which is unusual, so I love it just for that. It's a catchy, sing-along song; I just wish it didn't have the damn saxophone.

And So Is Love is typical Kate Bush - haunting, gorgeous ballad that works really well for winter.

Eat the Music is another fun pop song, and I don't understand why it came dead last in the singles rate. Now granted, the lyrics don't make a lot of sense - I saw someone on here say that they're about oral sex, and Wikipedia says they're "about opening up in relationships to reveal who we really are inside," but I don't know how well either of those interpretations holds up (especially the latter). I don't really care, though. It's not as though I Love It makes a lot of sense, but it's still a solid pop tune. Same goes here.

Moments of Pleasure is maybe my favorite Kate song. Definitely top three with Running Up That Hill and Sat in Your Lap. It's absolutely beautiful musically, mostly with lyrics to match. It sounds so dreamlike.

The Song of Solomon is basically filler, but it's still very pleasant. "Don't want your bullshit, just want your sexuality" is a classic Kate line.

Lily sounds more like Never for Ever-/The Dreaming-era Kate than probably anything else here, and though I'm not very fond of either of those albums, I do really like it. The chorus is oddly infectious.

The Red Shoes' lyrics don't really make sense without the plot of The Line, The Cross, and the Curve, but it's a fun little ditty nonetheless.

Top of the City comes off as a lesser Moments of Pleasure. It doesn't reach me in quite the same way, but it's similarly calming and wintry. It would be a really nice song to fall asleep to (no, no, no shade).

Constellation of the Heart feels, lyrically, like where Kate was trying to head with the whole damn album. Not something I'd choose to listen to, though.

Big Stripey Lie is the worst thing on the album. It's noise.

Why Should I Love You? is pretty fillery, but no less enjoyable for it. P'Nut probably stans for it.

You're the One is a fairly straightforward love song, which is unusual for Kate. Too bad it's boring.

Verdict: It's far from perfect, but it definitely doesn't deserve its poor reputation; I like it more than any of Kate's other albums. It would make a really good starting point for getting into Kate, given that it's more exoteric than most of her material. It's just too bad it falls apart at the end. 7/10.

Standout: Moments of Pleasure

Cyndi Lauper - Sisters of Avalon

Went back to a couple lost '90s releases by two underrated grrls today.



Released: 1997 according to Amazon, though I would have sworn it was 1996

Purchased: I'm thinking four, maybe five years ago? From Amazon's WarehouseDeals subsidiary, if I recall correctly.

Playthrough:

The title track is one of Cyndi's best "big pop songs," along with Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Money Changes Everything. Her moans on the verses are everything.

The Ballad of Cleo and Joe is a little hard to listen to at first because it's so beat-heavy, but not in a Steps four-on-the-floor kind of way. It's hard to explain. It just has a strong, uneven rhythm that's a little unsettling. Once I got a minute or so into it though, it clicked. The lyrics are apparently meant to be about a drag queen, but they could just as easily be about a transwoman or a non-binary person experimenting with their gender identity and expression, so it's close to my heart in that way.

Fall Into Your Dreams is also difficult to listen to, and doesn't really offer anything the way Cleo and Joe does.

You Don't Know is another of my favorite Cyndi songs. It's a big slice of True Blue-/Kiss-type pure pop but with pointed lyrics. There's just so much to love about it - the brilliantly subtle key change; its use of my favorite lyrical trick, using a word twice with different meanings ("Left suppresses right, right suppresses left, so what's left, and what's right?"). Should've been huge, but I guess the "bullshit" lyric probably put a damper on it.

Love to Hate is filler. I don't even have anything more to say about it.

Hot Gets a Little Cold is also pretty fillery, but it's really pretty.

Unhook the Stars is essentially a lesser Hat Full of Stars album track. Pleasant and passable, but nothing special.

Searching is very '90s house. Not altogether a good thing.

Say a Prayer is, dare I say, the worst song on the album. What's a melody, precious?

Mother is also somewhat lacking in the melody department, but it holds together better. It's okay.

Fearless was my original favorite. I love the lyrics, and though the production again renders it a little hard to play, I think the dulcimer adds that something to it.

Brimstone and Fire is about ... bisexuality? I think? It's a story song about meeting a woman and developing a relationship with her. The chorus is lax, but the verses are nice, aside from the occasional bad lyric ("I make spaghetti, she brings cake / I make spaghetti with tomato sauce because that's all I can make"... seriously?!).

Verdict: Far from Cyndi's best work, though it has a few gems. I think it's just way too of-its-time, and not straightforward enough for me, tunewise. 5/10.

Standout: You Don't Know

The Corrs - Borrowed Heaven

Gave this a spin today after Time Enough for Tears was randomly stuck in my head:



Released: 2004

Purchase: Got the Australian version in 2009 or 2010 at a used music shop in Ann Arbor. It was $8 as I recall - not too cheap at the price, but since Miracle was otherwise only available by buying the entire Dreams album on iTunes, and I already had that on CD (and hadn't discovered illegal downloading yet), I went for it.

Playthrough:

Summer Sunshine... what can I even say about Summer Sunshine? Most pop acts can only dream of having a song as outstanding as Runaway or Breathless, so it's really impressive that they actually managed to top both of those. To me, this is unquestionably the best song of their entire career, and one of the best songs (if not the best song) of the 21st century. It still hits me as hard as the first time I heard it. That moment after the middle-8 where Sharon sings "the HEEEEAAAAATTTT" and then the guitars come crashing back in does things to me. (The Fernando Garibay mix is amazing as well, by the way.)

I always associate Angel with the time it came on in the grocery store, and you best believe I was shaking my ass up and down that first aid aisle at 11:30pm. The lyrics puzzled me for a long time, not helped by the video where they perform it at a wedding. I thought for a while that it was about a friend moving away, but now I think I've finally figured out that it's about their mother's death.

Hideaway is where the album starts to step away from the polished Europop of Talk on Corners and In Blue. It's much more American folk-rock, but it really works.

Long Night is even more countryish. Lyrically, it's basically a more downbeat Super Trouper, and it has Andrea's best vocals on the album. Absolutely absurd single choice, but a great album track.

Goodbye was vastly improved by its later remix for the Dreams compilation, but this version is good too. It's just a bit odd to have the hand-clappy campfire sound with the sad lyrics. Sharon's demo is the best version of all, though.

Time Enough for Tears is sort of boring after those five great tracks - the chorus is very nice, but I could not sing a note of the verses, despite the dozens of times I've played this album.

Humdrum, lyrically, sounds like the kind of thing Tracey Ullman would've sung, not very Corrs-like at all, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. And the lyrics are strangely relatable.

Even If is another countryish one - sounds very Faith Hill. It's still a big pop stormer, though. Would've been a very good single in the place of Long Night.

Borrowed Heaven has maybe my favorite lyrics of any Corrs song. "All beauty, all fade away... borrowed." It's really effective in context. Could've done with a real final chorus rather than the Ladysmith Black Mambazo bit, but it's still a favorite.

Confidence for Quiet just sounds like a lesser version of Even If, but Even If is good enough that that's okay.

Baby Be Brave is nice and catchy, but again, I barely remember those verses.

Silver Strand is an instrumental but nonetheless sticks with me, and is enjoyable enough for me to play all the way through. Can't say that about most instrumentals.

Miracle is as sappy as you'd expect it to be (it's about a new child) but nice nevertheless.

Verdict: I hesitate to say it's The Corrs' best album, because it really doesn't have a lot in common with In Blue, let alone Talk on Corners or Forgiven Not Forgotten, but honestly? It is. My complaints above are relatively small, and I'm only making them because they're noticeable up against songs as flawless (WE ***FLAWLESS) as Summer Sunshine, Angel, the title track, and Long Night. Even Time Enough for Tears, the only filler on the album, would be among the better songs on a good many other albums. Literally a 10/10 album.

Standout: WHAT DO YOU THINK

Amy Grant - Heart in Motion

Released: 1991

Purchase: Originally checked it out from my school library in eighth grade (so, 2007?). I bought a copy used at FYE a year or two later, and got the remastered version on interlibrary loan earlier this year.

Playthrough: Good for Me is such a standout - one of Amy's best ever tracks. I'm glad she rediscovered it a few years ago and started playing it live again, but her newer performances make it a little too tame - it's just pop perfection on record.

Baby Baby is, obviously, bubblegum pop paradise. It's so effortlessly joyful, much like Kylie's best moments.

I could say the same about Every Heartbeat. Sixpence None the Richer's slower version is gorgeous, but Amy's is just wall-to-wall euphoria.

That's What Love Is For is really pretty, and has some of her more powerful lyrics. I do vastly prefer the single mix, though.

I used to love Ask Me, but it hits too close to home for me to enjoy it since two of my best friends are sexual assault survivors. But it's very well-written and even better produced.

Galileo is one of my all-time favorite Amy songs. SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SINGLE. The lyrics are so romantic, and the melody is lush.

I didn't use to like You're Not Alone for some reason, but I do now. It's got a very driving beat - sort of sounds like if Unguarded-era Amy got her hands on Donna Summer's Another Time and Place album.

Hats is ... nice. The lyrics tend to fall a little flat when you consider that it's pretty much Amy's version of She Works Hard for the Money, and the melody needs work. The worst thing is the production, though - I hate the background singers going "HATS!" But it's not awful by any means.

I Will Remember You is okay, but a little nothingy. The opening riff is way better than the rest of the song put together. Sarah MacLachlan's I Will Remember You is better (and I don't much like Sarah MacLachan).

How Can We See That Far feels like it's trying to be the sequel to Stay for Awhile (one of her best singles), but again, it's just lacking in substance.

Hope Set High is the worst song on the album. Boring, boring, boring. And not great vocals, either.

Verdict: This is still probably Amy's best album, even though it kind of falls apart after You're Not Alone. It's very pleasantly '90s - I wish Paula or PWL-/Deconstruction-era Kylie had made an album this consistent. Actually, if you bring up the quality by lopping off Hats and Hope Set High, it could almost play as the '90s equivalent of True Blue. It has that same pure pop sound. 8/10.

Standout: Every Heartbeat

Various - Elmopalooza!

Released: 1998

First Thoughts: Surprisingly, I don't really remember much beyond "Mambo I, I, I" (always my favorite) and "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend."

Purchase: I was six when this came out, you can't seriously expect me to remember where it came from. It was probably Target, though, as that's where I got most of my music at the time (and by "where I got" I mean "where my mom got" obviously). I'm 90% sure that's where I got the video. I had (have?) it on cassette, and just borrowed the CD from the library today to rip.

Playthrough:

Gloria Estefan - Mambo I, I, I - Still amazing, and genuinely one of Gloria's best songs. It ought to have been made longer, though. I love it for exposing me to Gloria, who I now adore.

En Vogue - I Want a Monster to Be My Friend - Probably the best production on the album, but I miss Zoe's "yeah yeah!" from the mix on the video. Great vocals, though, of course.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Zig Zag Dance - I actually like this more than I was expecting to. I think it was my least favorite as a child, but it has its charm. And the Count saying, "Now you know why they call them The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: count them, one mighty, two mighty, ah-ah!" has always been one of my favorite lines in the entire special.

Rosie O'Donnell - Nearly Missed - Rosie is obviously not a singer, though she actually has some pretty good vocal moments when she's in a higher register (this is true on her Christmas CDs as well, now that I think about it). But this is super catchy, even more than "Mambo I, I, I." It's just a shame that the soundtrack version is essentially a remix that inserts dialogue into the video version and has a slightly different backing track. A straight copy, extended with a new verse instead of awkwardly cut-up dialogue, would've been better.

The Fugees - Just Happy to Be Me - The chorus is nice enough, but the raps are awful to be honest. They could've done this very well if they'd kept the original structure and lyrics. "I'm in my PJ's drinking OJ" is just ridiculous.

Shawn Colvin - I Don't Want to Live on the Moon - This is surprisingly one of the standouts for me. I actually love her voice; I should check out some of her stuff. It probably helps that this is one of the very few songs on the album that are actually familiar and weren't just performed in one episode in the '70s or whatnot, but the arrangement is lovely too.

Steven Tyler - I Love Trash - I used to love this, and all I can say is that I'm glad I've grown the fuck up. It IS trash. Too bad.

Jimmy Buffett - Caribbean Amphibian - Not very remarkable, but perfectly #unjoyabul.

Céline Dion - Happy to Meet You - Nice enough, but pretty bland. But it's never been one of my favorite Street songs anyway.

Kenny Loggins - One Small Voice - One of the weaker tracks, but still better than Happy to Meet You (let alone I Love Trash). Again, just kind of bland.

Elmo and the Kids - Songs - Not a patch on the video version with Jon Stewart, David Alan Grier, and the adult Sesame Street cast. Typical Elmo fare.

Verdict: Could've done with a few donks on it, but it's pretty good, and remarkably diverse, for a children's album. Gloria, En Vogue, Shawn, and Kenny all have lovely voices, and for the most part it's very well produced. 8/10.

Standout: Mambo I, I, I and Nearly Missed.

A*Teens - The ABBA Generation

Released: 1999 (GOD I'M OLD)

First Thoughts: I loved this album long before I knew a thing about ABBA. Together with Mamma Mia! The Movie, it's to credit for my ABBA standom.

Purchase: Don't even know anymore. 2001 or 2002, I think.

Playthrough: Mamma Mia was almost always my favorite, and it's easy to see why. It's like a goddamn party in my head when I listen to this song. The only bad thing about it is that it's a shame that they reached their pinnacle with their very first single, but considering that their output afterward was still amazing, that's not that bad.

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! is also great, though I think the radio mix is better. Certainly a worthy adaptation, and probably better than the original.

Super Trouper is still a jam. The original is one of my favorite ABBA songs, and I love this version as well. It took me years (and hearing the Meryl Streep version) to understand the line "The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive," though - the most sense I could ever make out of Marie singing "I'm still alive" was "and Sir Lyden."

One of Us is probably the least convincing song on here. It just doesn't suit the dancey production as well as the others, and the retention of the intro makes it sound very odd since the rest of the song basically sounds like a HiNRG mix of an Erasure song. It's not bad or anything - not AT ALL - it's just an 8/10 on an album of 10/10's.

Voulez-Vous is really faithful to the original, but updated to match the standards of the time. It's probably the closest they got to perfectly mimicking "the music of ABBA today," to use their tagline from the Mamma Mia single.

SOS is really interesting, because it takes a midtempo and turns it into a huge dance track - and unlike One of Us, it works fantastically well.

Dancing Queen has never been one of my favorite ABBA songs, not because the song itself is bad, but there's something about the original that I just don't like - the vocals, the instrumentation, the production... I'm not sure. But I like almost every cover of it (and ABBA's own live version). This one, though, is my second-favorite, behind only Sixpence None the Richer's version (which is INCREDIBLE). The video was really fun too, even for a 10-year-old who had never heard of The Breakfast Club.

Take a Chance on Me is one of the two most clubby tracks on here, and it's probably a large part of why I'm so fond of dance music today (as is the album as a whole, to be honest). I love the original - maybe my favorite ABBA uptempo, maybe second behind Waterloo - but this is incredibly good.

Lay All Your Love on Me is the other, and again I think it exceeds the original, largely because I'm not fond of the vocals nor the disco production on the ABBA version.

The Name of the Game is another one where I don't like the original but love the covers, though in this case I can't even rank them (A*Teens, Irma, Amanda Seyfried) because they're all so great. The A*Teens version is chillingly beautiful and has some of the best vocal arrangements on the album.

Our Last Summer is a great album closer. Although they manage the impressive feat of mangling French worse than Girls Aloud on "Je ne parle pas français" ("Eh-full Tower" hurts my ears every time I hear it), it sounds so bright, and perfectly bittersweet. My favorite version of the song, for sure.

Knowing Me, Knowing You is the Japanese bonus track, but it really deserved to be on the standard album. It's my favorite ABBA song (at the moment), and though they don't match the original, they really do it justice. Marie's vocals on it are really nice.

Verdict: Still one of the best albums I own. I don't know why I don't play it every single week, but when I do remember it, I hammer it, and I think that's a good indication of how amazing it is. 10/10.

Standout: The whole goddamn album, let's be real.