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Post by 88keys on Jul 10, 2015 19:40:22 GMT
jrmugz, who cares what the Catholic church says? Why do you have to inject your religious beliefs into everything? It's tiring. I love this whole cd. Money Changes Everything....This song is truth! I wonder if the producer of this album was a Jeff Lynne-ELO fan, because some of the production techniques sound very similar to those on Secret Messages and Time. Girls Just Want To Have Fun...Hell yes, we do! This is an anthem for fun. When You Were Mine....Was this a hit single? If not, it should have been! Time After Time....Beauty personified. This song, an True Colors are her two best love songs. She Bop....Everybody bops! My second favorite song about diddling. He's My Best Friend by Jellyfish, is my first. All Through The Night....Lush and gorgeous. Witness....Madness should have covered this cool little reggae tinged song. I’ll Kiss You....I agree with Chippa, this is funky new wave. He’s So Unusual...LOL, this little song is fun. I like old fashioned scratchy record effect. Yeah Yeah....This is another one that they should have had plastered all over the radio! I think the guys from the band The Hooters are featured on this song. Horacewimp, thanks for making this the CDOTW! It made my day.
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Post by jrmugz on Jul 10, 2015 20:09:53 GMT
Then sexual intercourse, as opposed, should feed the soul with generosity, so I infer the Cathecism of the Catholic Church must encourage people to have sexual relations. In the context of marriage between a male and a female. The two key elements are: - unitive (united in marriage and both consenting and willing for the act) - procreative (100% open to life, so no contraception allowed). Yes, in the context of a marriage, when unitive and open to life (with nothing interfering or no pulling out), it is a very fulfilling experience, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Sex outside of marriage is called "fornication" and people will go to Hell for that, as it's a mortal sin. Everyone is being called home to The Catholic Church to live a holy and sacramental life. God wants to save us from Hell AND from sin itself. Christ is Our Savior, only He can help us with those; but we have to be willing to accept the gift of His grace and forgiveness, and be willing to repent (turn away from, do an about face on) our sins and follow Him. Jim
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Post by BSJ on Jul 10, 2015 21:21:33 GMT
88keys. Lucky you. At least your first didn't have a mind of it's own and got the job done right the first time.
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Post by Horacewimp on Jul 10, 2015 22:42:06 GMT
I'm glad you enjoyed the CD 88keys, it brings back many happy memories for me.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 22:48:08 GMT
Whatever happened to the no religion and political talk rule?
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Post by Horacewimp on Jul 10, 2015 22:51:55 GMT
Whatever happened to the no religion and political talk rule? I agree, I don't want to come down too hard on forum members but let's keep the discussion related to the the music please.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jul 12, 2015 5:01:08 GMT
- “Money changes everything”: the best thing about this song is it’s chorus, which is pretty much all you would want for a pop song chorus: short, simple, sticky and great for singalongs. Out of the rest, there’s not much more I would rescue. Also, the song goes on for too long, but still it’s a good opener.
- “Girls just want to have fun”: the melody on the verse is really good, and it ends up in that very effective refrain which gives a good ending to the whole construction. Again, the song contains a quite memorable (or at least easy to remember) hook. Kind of a pop hymn.
- “When you were mine”: the drums snare sounds terrible, like a piñata bursting, and you can even hear the air flowing out of it. Also, too many sound effects (little noises) and too little instrumentation. The song doesn’t sound inspired to me (either Prince wasn't in a good day or it was a throwaway of his), and Lauper’s squeaky style doesn’t help it much. Pretty forgettable.
- “Time after time”: a welcome slow down in the rhythm with a bigger emphasis in the melody, this is a great ballad. I like the reverby guitar making arpeggios and other arrangements at the background. The male vocals definitely add to the chorus (I found out that the male singer was co-writer of the song, didn’t know that). I wouldn’t go as far as the guys who said it’s a masterpiece, but I think it’s one of the highlights of the album. I also found out that Marie Fredriksson from Roxette did a cover of this one.
- “She bop”: a mediocre song at best. It’s way too flat and hasn’t got any occurrence through the whole song, not any twist in the melody or chord change that provokes any emotion. I think if it weren’t for the lyrics it would have gotten far less attention, because musically speaking it’s really poor. To make things worse, Lauper’s vocal performance is emotionless.
- “All through the night”: pretty solid ballad, probably the best song of the album. The chorus is nothing short of great, and the rest of the song goes along very well too. The fact that it is a cover is a bit of a minus for Cyndi Lauper, not only because the best song of her album is a cover, but because the original sounds so much better (and more organic) than her version.
- “Witness”: sounds like a synth-ska attempt. It’s strange but the part where the melody reaches it’s climax (“I don’t wanna be…”) doesn’t coincide with the part where the rhythm reaches it’s climax (or at least gets faster), what would have been the logical thing to do if you want the song to “explode”. The refrain is quite well achieved, but the rest of the song doesn’t accompany much IMO.
- “I’ll kiss you”: wow, this one sounds plainly ugly to me. That attempt of a (forced) melody is just shapeless shouting. Then, singing so much time over a synthetic drums pattern with no chords or bass notes whatsoever wasn’t a good idea at all. Then there’s that part where the synthetizers just repeat little sounds... nothing in this song sounds right. Awful.
- “He’s so unusual”: I liked this. I’m all in for those short little half-joke tracks in the middle of an album, more as a curiosity than as an accomplished track in itself, and this is a good one for that purpose. It’s a bit of a funny childish ‘30s song with a honky-tonk sound.
- “Yeah, yeah”: The whole song is too noisy and messy, and from a melodic point if view it is almost null. That organ hat you hear on your left channel during all song (mostly playing one note) is a bit maddening. I didn’t like the sax work either. Lauper’s squeaking like a pig only adds more noise. Didn’t like it at all.
It was good that you posted this album, Horace, as widening my knowledge about this particular artist is one of those things that you want to do but will never probably get to do unless someone serves you the opportunity on a silver platter (like in this case). Cyndi Lauper is a legend of the genre and getting to know more about her work is a thing I wanted to do. Besides that, I love straightaway pop, and I’m not someone who bitches much about the ‘80s sound as long as the songs are inspired and well-accomplished, so I was really curious about it.
After giving an attentive listen, I must say that this album came out to be below my expectations. Like I said, Lauper is a big name in the genre, and having in mind the few hits I knew from her I was hoping for a not-too-pretentious but still solid pop work. That’s not what I found. In fact, there were 3 or 4 songs which I liked or found decent (tracks #1, #2, #4 and #6). The rest I didn’t find very interesting. Many of them were pretty flat and failed at getting me involved or causing emotions (I don’t mean getting me to cry, but at least providing my ears with some good sensations).
The sound didn’t help either. I’ve got nothing about synthetizers in pop, but it is a dangerous weapon because it takes a very delicate, subtle, savvy producer to make them sound well (heck, even Jeff Lynne failed there a few times). I found most of this album –with some exceptions- to be overloaded with synth sounds, making the songs a bit monochromatic and failing to make each song distinguish itself from the others in terms of sound.
Also, I always found her voice very squeaky and a bit annoying, but though she would change it an adapt it. Wrong assumption. Apparently she hasn’t got any other way of singing (she’s pretty much a one-trick pony in that aspect), and hearing her sing 10 songs in a row in that style is definitely saturating.
So like I said, it was below my expectations for such a renowned artist, but it wasn’t terrible either, it left me a few things (besides the songs, for example, I discovered that Marie Fredriksson from Roxette covered “All through the night”) and it satisfied a personal curiosity about Cyndi Lauper and her music.
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Post by Horacewimp on Jul 12, 2015 8:33:01 GMT
Thanks Helmut83 for your very detailed and informative review.
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Post by unomusette on Jul 19, 2015 19:44:48 GMT
Told you I'd be back, sorry for the delay. Cyndi Lauper is a one-off, although beneath the outrageous exterior lies a clever songwriter. She's a role model for the kind of "dance like nobody's watching, sing like nobody's listening" outlook, good on her! I've always had a soft spot for her despite never owning any of her output, so here goes: 1) Money Changes Everything - The jangly guitars remind me of something the Lord Dame himself might have had a hand in, in fact as the song goes on it sounds even more so, it just lacks the smooth finish he would have put on it. But that would have taken away a lot of the charm. Good pop song, although I hope the electric keyboards don't feature too much in the rest of the album. 2) Girls Just Want To Have Fun - well, it's a classic innit? And the video was a hoot too. You can't help but sing along, and listening on earphones the sounds bounce about all over the place. Ten out of ten. 3) When You Were Mine - Again, an opening reminiscent of something off Balance of Power. Trips along nicely and her vocals soar above it. Nothing special but brings back the '80's sound a treat. 4) Time After Time - Another classic, did it win a Grammy or an Ivor Novello or something? It should have. It's so different to the previous tracks and proves she can pull off a ballad as well as a bouncy pop track. Time after Time? Ten out of Ten. 5) She Bop - Well, this one comes with baggage already, having had a quick squint at previous reviews Now it's the pumped up drums that bring ELO to mind. It does sound familiar, was it a single? To be honest I'd not have noticed the subject matter if it hadn't been brought up, you have to make an effort to pick the lyrics out of all the background noise. A bit too heavy on the electronic sound for my taste, but at least the reason for all those yelps is now clear 6) All Through The Night - Not a stand out track for me but pleasant enough and it does showcase her vocals. Synth overload starting to wear thin at this point. I bet she'd produce it a whole lot differently if it were recorded today. 7) Witness - Bit of ska influence here and the sound is a lot smoother as it kicks off. I like the way it skips about all over the place towards the end with the drums going bananas. Good one. 8) I’ll Kiss You -'50's vibe with the Love Potion No. 9 line. She certainly puts her heart and soul into the vocals but it goes on a bit too long for me. It would be good as background music if you had some energetic chore to do. 9) He’s So Unusual - Well the opening is unusual for a start, she pulls off the music-hall vibe well here and it's atmospheric to have the crackly vinyl sound overlaying it. However its short length means it doesn't get annoying. Fun track. 10) Yeah Yeah -All of her vocal styles appear to be on show here, and why not? The up-front keyboard sound does spoil it a bit for me but it's a nice, bouncy closing track. I'd give this album a 6 out of ten. It has a couple of rock solid classics and some great upbeat pop, but I did find the heavy use of synths a bit irksome. At the time this was what everyone was doing though, so that is a bit unfair, and as I mentioned before it would be interesting to hear how the album would sound if it were produced today. Thanks for giving me the chance to finally listen to the whole of it, Horacewimp!
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Post by Horacewimp on Jul 19, 2015 20:06:54 GMT
Thanks for your detailed review unomusette you seemed to like, like me, the first half of the album more than the last.
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Post by unomusette on Jul 19, 2015 20:11:12 GMT
Yep, I'd go with that. Actually it's surprising how many albums start off well then tail off. Most ELO albums aren't guilty of this, quality right till the end.
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Post by queenofthehours on Jul 22, 2015 16:12:32 GMT
1) Money Changes Everything - A nice upbeat pop song. Those drums are very 80s. 2) Girls Just Want To Have Fun - A classic, again very 80s but that doesn’t seem to matter when it’s blaring out at a disco. 3) When You Were Mine - The intro to this actually sounds like something Jeff may have considered putting on the Time album. One of my favourites. 4) Time After Time - Another classic. I think others have covered it – too many times to be honest – but this is the only one that works, the classic and only one anyone needs. 5) She Bob - Another intro that could have come from Time! In fact it does sound very much like something from Time. 6) All Through The Night - Another good song, lots of 80s synth again. The melody reminds me a lot of Freiheit’s ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’ which is no bad thing. 7) Witness - I’m not as keen on this but only because it reminds me of 80s McCartney. Nothing wrong with Macca or this track but the idea just intrudes too much. 8) I’ll Kiss You - More upbeat 80s pop. They’re really going to town on the 80s effects here. 9) He’s So Unusual - Love the production here. Nice and short. 10) Yeah Yeah - I don’t know why it wasn’t until this track but there is a very definite B52s vibe on this music.
I don't know what I was expecting with this album but I do know I was surprised that both the big hits were on here - an album of gems. I'll need to listen more to get a better view of the LP but listening to it for the first time is the aural equivalent of eating a big cream bun.
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Post by Horacewimp on Jul 22, 2015 17:02:00 GMT
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