494 - Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

[csberry]

It is hard for me to judge this album as "an album." Five of the first six songs are ingrained in my brain as superb singles in the early 80's when I first started exploring Top 40 music. Songs like "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time," and "She Bop" are all iconic in my memories of early 80's pop. These songs are all a bit different from each other and don't rely upon a particular sound or vocal delivery. There are some similarities when you listen to "Girls..." and "She Bop" back to back and "Time After Time" and "All Through the Night" together. But this isn't an album where an artist has a sound and milks it in the various songs; Cyndi shows some sanitized punk flavors and nails the pop ballads...all on one side of the record.

Alas, as much as I tried to analyze the first half of the album despite their iconic status, things kind of fall to pieces from such high consistency once you get to "Witness." Are the songs on the second half bad? No...just rather boring. "I'll Kiss You" may have been better in the hands of the B-52's and "Yeah Yeah" sounds like it was stolen from Oingo Boingo. The short, quirky Betty Boop-esque "He's So Unusual" definitely belongs on the album, but doesn't really do much to add to Cyndi's persona.

Songs I knew I liked: Basically the first 6 tracks - "Money Changes Everything," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "When You Were Mine," "Time After Time," "She Bop," and "All Through the Night"

Songs I didn't know but now like: The second half of the album lacks the zip that characterizes the first half, so I didn't come away from this album with a new song discovery.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Witness," "I'll Kiss You," and "Yeah Yeah"

Comments

[chris21718.livejournal.com]

I loved the hits from that album. I haven't listened to an entire album in a long time.

Cyndi Lauper!

[(Anonymous)]

God save the queens' consort! She's one of the few female music artists that came into her own in the 80s that actually had talent and experience (ahem, Blue Angel, anyone?). Sorry Madonna; you may have the publicity gene, but Cyndi has the musical chops you wish you had. Also her own lovable higgledy-piggledy neon-punk style, born at Screaming Mimi's at Columbus Circle in NYC.

Cyndi Lauper! part 2

[(Anonymous)]

As for "She Bop": after the Vapors' "Turning Japanese" and Billy Squiers' "Stroke", did we REALLY need another song about masturbation? Apparently Cyndi thought so, and, several years later, so did the Divinyls.

[csberry.livejournal.com]

If you have Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some, there really isn't any need to get this album. "When You Were Mine" is the only song from the first half of the album which isn't on her greatest hits collection.

Re: Cyndi Lauper! part 2

[csberry.livejournal.com]

The female POV of masturbation certainly was lacking before "She Bop." :)