Energetic And Intriguing, Cyndi Lauper Remembers How To Shine!

The Good: Great musical diversity, Decent themes, Moments of voice
The Bad: Some painful singsong rhymes, Moments of overproduced vocals
The Basics: Cyndi Lauper may not have achieved commercial recognition with Shine, but it remains a powerful album well worth giving attention to.


Of all the Artist Of The Month artists I have focused on, I suspect there is none that I feel as badly for as Cyndi Lauper, who is my current Artist Of The Month. Shine is only the third full album of Lauper’s that I have listened to and it was her eighth album and is generally regarded as a pretty colossal commercial flop. But Lauper actually has a lot to say and Shine is a distinctive album in that almost every song has a very different sound and feel to it, much like Sophie B. Hawkins’s album Timbre (reviewed here!) or Heather Nova’s album South (reviewed here!), but it still sounds good as a album. In other words, each song is different, but the album somehow manages to hold together instead of sounding like a hodgepodge or a bad mix tape.

Lauper, though, is the study of a resilient artist who peaked early (her debut album remains her best-selling album of her career by a pretty decent margin), but continues to produce. It seems that with each outing, she asserts more creative control and, in general, the results are better and better. Unfortunately for Lauper, despite having something to say and having genuine integrity as a musical artist, Lauper has never retaken her position on the charts (while contemporaries of hers, most notably, Madonna, have occasionally reinvented themselves). Shine illustrates well how fickle the market can be; Shine seems to have everything that should have made it a success. . . but it wasn’t.

With thirteen songs, clocking out at 54:47, Shine was very much the creative work of Cyndi Lauper. In addition to providing all of the lead vocals, Lauper co-wrote the entire album. Lauper also co-produced Shine with her frequent collaborator, William Whitman. Given that Lauper produced the album for a small label, it seems like Shine was very much the creative vision of Cyndi Lauper, without her having to compromise to a corporate interest with its production.

Shine has a decent range of musical styles on it, though it is very much a rock and roll album. From the rock ballad “Who Let In The Rain” to “It’s Hard To Be Me,” which sounds like a lost Avril Lavigne track, Shine plays along a rock spectrum that is more distinct and edgy than Lauper’s early albums. With the electric guitars on “Madonna Whore,” Lauper establishes herself as someone who has completely left behind her pop princess roots and is prepared to rock with the best of them.

Surprisingly, despite the more sophisticated instrumentals on Shine, Cyndi Lauper manages to make all of her lines well-heard on the album. This is not an album where her vocals get drowned out, even on the songs with the loudest guitars. Lauper sings fast, but sweet, for most of “Comfort You” and is produced in such a way that her lines can be perfectly heard. On the opening song, “Shine,” Lauper sets the tone of the album with vocals that do not sound at all nasal; each word is clear and the tones are natural. On a few tracks, most notably “This Kind Of Love” where she sounds like Madonna, Lauper’s vocals are less natural-sounding and the album does not have any songs where her vocals dominate the track. This is an album where she stays very much in her mid-range without straining her lungs or going into the higher registers much.

That said, Cyndi Lauper clearly has a lot to say on Shine. Anyone who can make music out of one of Freud’s theories – as Lauper does on “Madonna Whore” – deserves some attention! Poetically, Lauper has some compelling musical story-songs. Perhaps one of her best of all time is “Eventually.” Lauper develops a whole story with the lines “I met a man / And talked about you / He seemed like a man from Osaka I knew / And he listened while I told him how you hurt me / And he consoled me when he told me he'd been hurt too / And he said we are inter-dependent / And the effects on each other never ending” (“Eventually”) and she makes it musical and intriguing to the ear.

As poetic as Lauper gets, Shine gets off to a somewhat awkward start. One of the consequences of having lyrics that are presented with crystal clarity is that the lines can be heard and painfully predictable rhymes grate upon the ear. While Lauper does not fall into that trap too often (repetition seems to be more her problem), it is hard not to cringe when one hears “You see me everywhere, in my underwear / You may wonder what I'm here to sell / But underneath my stare, I'm so naked there / There are secrets I'm dying to tell” (“It’s Hard To Be Me”).

Not only singing about relationships, Lauper sings about connection with energy on songs like “Higher Plane.” Without making a party anthem, Lauper wrote “Rhythm is my spirit / Rhythm is my speech / Rhythm is pulsating / The rhythm of the street / (Ahh) Ooo... to find myself in the still of the thunder / (Ahh) Ooo... 'til another moment passing by pulls me under... pulls me under” (“Higher Plane”) and managed to capture the connection of dancing together wonderfully!

Shine might not have charted a single, but hearing the album now, one is left with the enduring question of “why?” While musical trends rise and fall, enduringly compelling music ought to shine out of it and away from hype machines and promotion, Cyndi Lauper’s Shine deserves to find its audience which will appreciate it. It certainly resonated with me!

The best song is “Rather Be With You,” the low point is the repetitive and somewhat dull “Valentino.”

For other, former, Artist Of The Month selections, please check out my reviews of:
@#%&*! Smilers - Aimee Mann
Goodbye Alice In Wonderland - Jewel
MTV Unplugged – 10,000 Maniacs

6.5/10

Check out my full library of music reviews have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page which has a clear !

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Coming Back Stronger, Cyndi Lauper Shows Her True Colors!

The Good: Good themes, Catchy tunes, Not all the best songs were singles, Good vocals
The Bad: Short, Some unfortunately predictable rhymes
The Basics: Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors might be a more collaborative effort than her debut, but the results are undeniably wonderful!


Back in the day, when Annie Lennox was my Artist Of The Month, I felt a weird pang of artist guilt. When I choose an Artist Of The Month, I try to find a musical artist – one who writes their own music, plays some of their own music and, in general is not just a performer of works written by others. With Annie Lennox, I felt a bit bad because her solo debut album, Diva (reviewed here!) was less good than her follow-up, an album comprised entirely of cover songs called Medusa (reviewed here!). As I delve into the musical works of Cyndi Lauper, I am finding myself feeling a similar sense of guilt. After all, I am enjoying True Colors more than her debut album, She’s So Unusual (reviewed here!).

True Colors was Cyndi Lauper’s sophomore album and while She’s So Unusual was hardly a debut album chock full of Lauper’s writing, on True Colors some of the best tracks were not even co-written by Lauper. Interestingly, True Colors is very much a collaborative album; Lauper had a number of guest musicians and vocalists on the album. Despite being less intimately or distinctly the work of Cyndi Lauper, True Colors is a better album that shows real growth for Cyndi Lauper as a musical artists.

With only ten tracks, clocking out at 37:57, perhaps the biggest strike against True Colors is that it is short. Despite the fact that Lauper is credited as a co-writer on only seven of the ten songs, the fact that she co-produced True Colors seems to indicate that she was integrally involved in chosing the three other songs on the album. Lauper provides all of the lead vocals on True Colors and she is credited with the emulator (I’ve never heard of that instrument) and she performs her own beat box on at least one track. Despite not writing or co-writing the entire album, True Colors does seem to legitimately be the creative vision of Cyndi Lauper.

True Colors is a more musically diverse album than She’s So Unusual. In addition to up-tempo dance songs like “Iko Iko” and “The Faraway Nearby” True Colors includes more contemplative ballads, like the title track, “What’s Going On,” “Calm Inside The Storm” and “Boy Blue.” I was pleasantly surprised by how the album starts out with a meaningful song with “Change Of Heart” (arguably one of the most repetitive songs I’ve heard that actually still works!) and gets True Colors off to a more raucous start!

Vocally, True Colors shows some real growth for Cyndi Lauper as a singer. Outside “Iko Iko,” none of the songs actually have Lauper’s vocals heavily produced. Instead, True Colors has vocals that sound delightfully natural and, on songs like “True Colors” and “Maybe He’ll Know” fairly raw. One of the pleasant aspects of True Colors is how Lauper’s vocals have none of the nasal quality that was apparent on several songs on her debut. So, even songs like “The Faraway Nearby,” where it sounds like Lauper is straining some, still sound distinctly feminine, real and like Cyndi Lauper!

Lyrically, Cyndi Lauper has a lot to say on True Colors. Unlike Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke,” Cyndi Lauper does not lampoon the early ineffectiveness of the 911 system on her song “911.” Instead, she makes a song with interpersonal disaster needing a universal remedy. She ties the personal plea for help together well with lines like “Tell me do you have a home-made remedy, / The only time we talk is in our sleep / Oh he likes mornings, I like the moon / It's a typical case of too little, too soon / I'm dialing up 911 / I'm on the brink of trouble again, / If you could change the time, a little, / Then everything would be / Fine, fine, fine” (“911”).

Most of the songs on True Colors are about relationships, though, and Lauper does a great job with her poetics. When Lauper sings “You seem so far away / I wish I could say something / But I don't know what to say / I can feel your eyes / I don't have to look at you / Boy, discontentment / Is-a-sneakin' through” (“Calm Inside The Storm”), it is hard not to empathize with her musical protagonists. Even the somewhat repetitive quality of “Change Of Heart,” which was done a disservice by a music video that had nothing to do with the lyrics, has a sense of longing and desire that is essential and human and uncommon even in music today.

Not all of the songs are lyrical gold, though. The album finishes with the somewhat banal “One Track Mind.” In addition to repeating the title ad nauseum, the song includes predictable rhymes like “I climb up the stairs / I sit up and stare / But nobody's there / I walk ahead / (Got a one track mind) / You fall behind” (“One Track Mind”).

That is not enough to deter one from listening to and adding True Colors to one’s collection even now. Despite some dated elements, Cyndi Lauper’s sophomore effort still rocks and has a lot to offer listeners.

The best track is “Calm Inside The Storm,” the low point is probably “One Track Mind.”

For other, former, Artist Of The Mont selections, please check out my reviews of:
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner
The Beginning Of Survival - Joni Mitchell
Britney Jean (Deluxe) – Britney Spears

8/10

Check out how this album stacks up against other music I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the albums are organized from best to worst!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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My January 2015 Artist Of The Month Is . . . Cyndi Lauper! She’s So Unusual

The Good: Infectious melodies, Decent lyrics, Good vocals
The Bad: Short, Some bits of musical limitation
The Basics: One of the iconic albums of the 1980s, She’s So Unusual made Cyndi Lauper a household name . . . and started her musical career at its peak!


Happy 2015! As I begin a slew of fresh new reviews, I am excited to begin the year out with no cache of previously-published music reviews. That means that for the first time since I began W.L. Swarts Reviews The Universe, all of my Artist Of The Month selections will be brand new! Instead of bouncing between reviews from a male or female Artist Of The Month within each month, each month will now have its own, distinctive, musical artist for me to explore as I try to enrich my appreciation of music of all genres. I decided to start the year with an exploration of the musical works of Cyndi Lauper for a simple reason: I was going through a list of best-selling female artists of all time and Lauper’s name was pretty high on the list and it occurred to me that I had never reviewed one of her albums!

So, I thought I would start at the beginning with Cyndi Lauper’s solo debut album, She’s So Unusual. She’s So Unusual has the distinction of being one of the best-selling debut albums of all time, having sold twenty-two million copies around the world, since its release in 1983. Unfortunately, it also has the distinction of being – far and away – the best-selling Cyndi Lauper album of the artist’s career. When I learned that, I decided that part of my goal this month would be to make my own judgment as to whether or not that is warranted. If is it, there is something unfortunate about that because while the four well-known singles off She’s So Unusual range from memorable to meaningful and excellent, She’s So Unusual is far from a perfect album.

With ten tracks clocking out at 38:42, She’s So Unusual is partially the creative work of Cyndi Lauper – who is a legitimate artist, not just a performer – and the team that was assembled for her at Portrait (her label back in the day). The result is an album that launched Lauper to the status of worldwide superstar . . . without necessarily showing off her actual talents. Lauper is credited as a co-writer on four of the ten songs (which means that Prince had a more solid claim over the creation of the song “When You Were Mine” – which he wrote alone – than Lauper had over any of the songs on She’s So Unusual!). That said, Lauper provides all of the lead vocals on She’s So Unusual and she is credited as an “arranger,” which given how the instrumentals are all programmed, one suspects is something more along the production end. The album was produced by Rick Chertoff and William Wittman, so how much creative control Lauper actually had is debatable.

Instrumentally, She’s So Unusual is very much a sign of the times. A product of early 1980’s pop, She’s So Unusual is dominated by synthesizers and percussion machines. Lauper’s arrangements and those of the creative team behind the album, however, had a decent sense of musical ability. That resulted in a number of infectious tunes and actual distinctive melodies. The mix of pop classics like the up-tempo “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “She Bop” with slower, more contemplative ballads like “Time After Time” and “All Through The Night” gives the album a decent sense of musical flow. Lauper’s debut does not fall into the same trap as so many pop albums that are synth-based in that the album never sounds monolithic or dull; the tracks are each distinctive and musically whole.

Vocally, Cyndi Lauper is all over. Songs like “He’s So Unusual” have Lauper presenting a nasal, high-pitched series of vocals that border on the annoying. She is able to present wonderful, beautiful musical moments with her voice – as evidenced by “Time After Time.” Unfortunately, like so many synth-driven pop albums of the early 1980s, She’s So Unusual suffers on songs like “When You Were Mine” because Lauper’s natural voice is so altered by production elements that it is almost unrecognizable.

For an album made famous by the pure pop power of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” She’s So Unusual is actually more thematically substantive and smart than the most famous track off it would make one think. Lauper and her writing team tackle a number of subjects ranging from masturbation (“She Bop”) to desire (“I’ll Kiss You”). In fact, She’s So Unusual opens with the substantive song about human relationships, “Money Changes Everything.” Lauper’s biggest commercial success opens with the warning set to music: “They shake your hand and they smile / And they buy you a drink / They say we'll be your friends / We'll stick with you till the end / Ah but everybody's only / Looking out for themselves / And you say well who can you trust / I'll tell you it's just / Nobody else's money” (“Money Changes Everything”) and it is a powerful start.

As one might expect, the bulk of the songs are about love and human relationships. Lauper’s reaches her poetic peak when she sings “Sometimes you picture me / I'm walking too far ahead / You're calling to me, I can't hear / What you've said / Then you say - go slow / I fall behind / The second hand unwinds” (“Time After Time”), though there are a number of good lines scattered throughout She’s So Unusual.

Unfortunately the replayability of She’s So Unusual is diminished by the album’s short duration and some incredibly repetitive tracks. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” might have a hypnotic effect (or annoying, depending on one’s perspective), but it has nothing on “Witness.” “Witness” has a good message that is almost entirely lost by the repetition of “I don't wanna be / I don't wanna be a witness / No, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh - witness” so many times that it obscures the meaningful rest of the song.

All that said, She’s So Unusual is a decent pop-rock album and a fine debut that makes me excited about spending a month listening to the music of Cyndi Lauper! For all its problems, the best song unique to the album (her most famous singles from She’s So Unusual are on Lauper’s innumerable compilation albums) is “When You Were Mine,” the low point is the vignette “He’s So Unusual.”

For other, former, Artist Of The Month selections, please check out my reviews of:
Vespertine - Bjork
The Collection - Alanis Morissette
Hits And Rarities - Sheryl Crow

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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