Special Songs Pt 2

Well, just three days before the end of February we come to the last post of the month! I hope you all have had fun here during these few days, reading the little musings that I drop here and there (as if - I know I'm a disaster, you don't need to say it!). Anyway, to accompany the ever shorter and gradually less obscure and mysterious nights of late February, and give you hope in the future, I have uploaded two songs I simply love: Black's understated masterpiece Wonderful Life and the 2000 hit Shackles (Praise You), from the awesome Gospel duo Mary Mary!



Both songs are meant to be desperate cries for help that express the need of a better life and the willingness to do whatever necessary to achieve it. Only, the ways in which each song does it are very different. Black's cold, alluring atmosphere is built upon the constant repetition of the same chord and light, airy layers of synthesizer effects that manage to express exactly the opposite: a secret warmth that lies hidden to a hostile world, but requires close human contact and emotional reciprocity to keep existing. It was written in 1985 by a then saddened and impoverished unknown songwriter called Colin Vearncombe, who had recently been dropped by his record company due to the dismal reception of his work, and believed that he had no professional prospects. Ironically, what was some sort of ‘cathartic’ musical exercise to express his hopelessness, got him signed to A&M Records just two months later, and would provide him (who was the only real member of Black – the rest were session musicians who were hired when need for their services arose) three platinum-selling albums between 1987 and 1991, as well as turning his reposed, seemingly distant delivery into a classic that exemplifies the true depths that emotional restraint can hide.



Fortunately, Vearncombe has kept recording and touring as front man of Black and a soloist, and has quite a faithful public in the UK and the Netherlands.



Mary Mary (named in honour of the Virgin and Magdalene), is composed of singing and songwriting sisters Erica and Trecina Campbell/Atkins, and was a work in progress that provided an endless source of material to the likes of Shirley Caesar and Yolanda Adams. In 1998, they finally decided to take a chance and record their own songs, and with the intercession of the Holy Ghost (;-P) they finally released their debut in 2000. It was a huge hit for a Gospel album, and managed to sell 3 million copies worldwide. The group has followed with two other very successful albums, but the song I’m posting today is the one that has immortalized them as icons of contemporary religious music. In reality a sorrowful prayer set to a cheerful funk beat and a wonderful melody, this song is highlighted by the Campbell sisters’ spectacular voices and very delicate vocoder distortions, which manage to make the essence of the song even more poignant in its sugar-coated ornamentation. Like a flame imprisoned in a glass, what the lyrics represent seems to be magnified by the frivolous beauty of its exterior, and I think that this is what makes the song so special (at least in my eyes! ;-) ).



Without further ado, I present you both songs. I hope you like them! :-). But before you listen to any of both songs, please go to buy Black's or Mar Mary's albums to Amazon or HMV.

Wonderful Life

Praise You (Shackles)

The Mexican crowd pleaser - Fey

Mexican electro-bubblegum queen Fey's story is a sugary tale with a few touches of 'intense dramatism' thrown in for good measure. Born in a privileged environment and brought up since early childhood to be a star by her parents, who were highly involved in the Latin music industry, Fey has experienced the fickleness of fortune (and record companies) more than a few times, and possibly become stronger as a result... Even if she's been forced to remain within the confines of teenage pop in order to maintain her ever changing degree of popularity. This, however, has also helped her to keep a certain perennial freshness to her style that has enabled her to trascend the sways in pop culture trends. Said in less words, Fey's music flooded the airwaves with healthy bursts of cheesy wholesomeness in 1994, and has kept it's every-girl-next-door appeal regardless of what was happening around it.

Gifted with considerable charisma, prettiness and little else, Fey's raspy, half-sung and half-spoken vocals are the very opposite of what one would expect in a teenage star, for they convey everything but sweetness. This, however, didn't keep her from exploding into the mainstream with her début single, the adorable Media Naranja, which was followed by her massively successful self-titled album, which spawned another three hit singles. However, things were going to become even bigger with the release of her second album Tierna La Noche/Sweet Night(1996), as Latin America seemed to be afflicted by an acute case of Feymania that only got worse with the shameless overexposure of the artist: from crisps to lip balms, she endorsed everything and anything imaginable.



This was bound to affect her both personally and professionally, though, and her next album, the absolutely dismal El Color De Los Sueños/The Colour Of Dreams (1998), which was praised for mixing styles in the worst way imaginable, sold only a little less than her previous efforts on the strength of Fey's enormous popularity. In the eyes of her record company and most of the media, this was a sign that her good luck was coming to an end, and rumours started appearing about Fey's inminent disappearance from the charts and the hearts of her public. Of course, no one stopped to think that maybe the fact that the record was utter shit had something to do with the decline of her popularity, but the case is that, at the end of her 1999 tour, Fey announced with discretion that she was retiring... By going everywhere where they would have her and weeping about how terrible success had been for her! Poor little thing! ;-)

After nearly four years away from the spotlight, Fey returned in 2002 with what actually is her best material ever, the truly excellent Vertigo. Released as a double album with versions in Spanish and English (the English CD has rather accomplished extra tracks), the album was meant to launch her internationally and turn her into the next post-maternity, spiritually-liberated Madonna. Sadly, after being promised the moon, the record company got cold feet and simply refused to promote the album, which had an unfairly mediocre reception. Disenchanted, Fey retired and reluctantly came back two years later with her worst material ever, which ironically would propel her to the top of the charts and make her massively popular once again. Her horrid raping of Spanish legendary group Mecano's classics in La Fuerza Del Destino/The Strength Of Fate (2004), and then the careless, tired electro-pop of Faltan Lunas/There Are Not Enough Moons (2006 - the next album review, by the way! :-)) truly attest to the fact that Fey's popularity was built upon good songs in the first place.

But enough of my ramblings! If you want to buy her records, go to Amazon.

Azúcar Amargo/Bitter Sugar

Fey's wondrous greatest hit ever, from the legendary success that was her sophomore album, Tierna La Noche. This paean to heartbreak, which resorts to all sorts of hilarious malapropisms to convey the pains of teenage disillusion, is simply irresistible and arguably her best vocal performance ever, forcing her to go to the top of her range to 'belt' (:-S) the simply perfect chorus. Few pop moments have ever been so perfect, and this truly shows what Fey is capable of doing when given the right material. Video.

Sé Lo Que Vendrá/I Know What Will Come

The first of the only two singles released from her masterpiece Vertigo, this ought to have been a massive hit, but unfortunately both the rave reviews that the album received and the attempts that Fey made to promote it were unfructifeous. A truly superb dance song that, unlike Madonna's efforts, manages to convey a sense of heightened spirituality while being entertaining. A genuinely beautiful song with excellent lyrics (written by Fey herself), this is just delightful. Video.

Media Naranja/My Other Half

Fey's star-making first single, this song has aged surprisingly well, and could have become a hit nowadays as easily as it did in 1994. The impeccably polished production creates a joyful atmosphere while allowing the impossibly pretty (the overabundance of superlatives again! Ugh!) melody to flow naturally along Fey's peculiar vocals. Even though I wouldn't dare to call this a classic, it is indeed a fine pop confection. Video.

Canela/Cinnamon

The requisite ballad of this post comes with one of the few tolerable moments of the album El Color De Los Sueños. This extremely laid back and sweet song has very light touches of folk music, and manages to be one of Fey's most significant highlights by conveying profound sadness and despair without resorting to exaggerate instrumental effects or a dramatic vocal delivery. Truly beautiful. Video.

Album Review - The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits

One of Britain's most successful girl groups ever, Girls Aloud epitomize the very meaning of the word 'product'. Randomly handpicked by a fame hungry clown and two integral imbeciles (Gerry Halliwell, Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh, respectively) in the awful reality show Popstars :The Rivals, the group was destined to be yet another one among the masses of barely tolerable one-hit-wonders that the music industry uses to momentarily increase its revenues, and then discards mercilessly and without a second thought. What is it, then, that makes this group even remotely interesting? What has saved them from oblivion?

The answer would be, I think,style in banality. Girls Aloud are not the prettiest girls, have barely mediocre voices and lack the ability to construct a coherent phrase after making considerable collective efforts. This doesn't make them any different from hundreds of other retarded tarts that try to hit the charts nowadays, I know, but the truth is that success behind this group's talent for crass mediocrity seems to be its presentation. Yes, the girls are good at two things: they do what they're told, and mime coyly to bizarre pop songs the impact of which is great enough as to eclipse the greasy, grimy Council Estate aura that emanates from these five petty chavette prototypes.



Thus, after 5 years of touring, grating interviews and ever changing hairdos, Girls Aloud present us with what possibly is the high point of their career: an album containing their impressive (in chart terms) collection of hits, which manages to both make an objective presentation of their talents while gracefully describing what’s so wrong with the group. And it’s precisely there where things lead us to the question: how have they managed to keep going?! The drunken-chant-on-a-Saturday-night-out approach that is given to most of the choruses, combined with the chaotic verse-swapping of which the group’s producers are so fond, expose Girls Aloud for what it is; an impersonal, over-tried formula that’s been (for once) well-directed by record company executives, and little else.

What is it, then, that should make us buy this album? The answer is in the music. While often slipping into self-parody with downright idiotic lyrics that wouldn’t look out of place in a ten-year-old’s personal diary, the way in which the strange, hook-ridden melodies are presented is simply irresistible, and attests to both the originality and acute commercial instinct of songwriters Xenomania. From the opening guitar riffs of their irresistible first hits Sound Of The Underground and No Good Advice to the last skipping beats and distorted guitar effects of their absolutely dismal version of Tiffany’s rebellious puppy love ‘classic’ I Think We’re Alone Now, the richly textured backgrounds to which the girls whine are the very stuff of innovation, and that’s exactly what sets them apart from every other clone-band.

No Good Advice



Another thing that can be observed while listening to this collection is the stylistic linearity that the group has followed, from the techno-tinged faux rock with Bananarama-esque vocals of their beginnings to the gradually more aggressive electric guitar-licked dance sound of their later offerings, Girls Aloud has evolved into a smoothly running machine that easily produces instant-perfect disposable pop with impressive comfort. This transition can easily be appreciated in the bombastic Wake Me Up, blossoming in its apparent continuation, the inescapable Something Kinda Ooh, both of which explode into the listener’s ears with an overabundance of instrumental layers that both bury and highlight the melodies’ alternation of shocking counterpoints and endless hooks.

Wake Me Up

Something Kinda Ooh



The problems start when the girls step away from the fast running beat train that carries their few memorable moments. While experiments like Long Hot Summer, Biology and the doo-wop styled ballad Whole Lotta History manage to be cute thanks to their careful crafted melodies, running along them there are disastrous accidents like the simply insufferable concoctions The Show and the unclassifiable Love Machine: genuinely odd moments that bare the girls’ soul-less squawking and lack of interpretive skills, while offending the listener’s ears with simply irritating, aimless tunes. The ballads don’t fare much better, being most attempts disastrous dog’s breakfasts covered in pretty garnish. From the beautiful guitar introduction of Life Got Cold (which goes from spoken dullness to whispered narcotic in no time) to their monotonous, lazily-walking-by-the-notes covers of I’ll Stand By You and DC Lee’s gorgeous ode to unrequited love See The Day, the dramatic impact of which is sadly wasted by an amateurish delivery and paper thin vocals, and is only tolerable because of the original melody’s sheer beauty.

Whole Lotta History

Long Hot Summer

See The Day

Thus, here finishes this month’s review! I hope you like it and I didn’t bore you too much with my unclear writing. :-) If you like the songs I've posted, please go to buy the album at Amazon or HMV.

The French prophetess of mystical nonsense - Mylene Farmer

One of the greatest stars ever in France and a master in orchestrating massive publicity campaigns out of nothing, Mylène Farmer is a techno/pop singer who has carefully crafted the perfect image to go with her peculiar brand of music: ethereal, calculatedly aloof and visually alluring. Known for her frequently unintelligible lyrics full of intricate pop culture references and the sweet, sugary vocals with which she sublimates the stout, fleshy melodies that most of her songs have (courtesy of her long time collaborator, Laurent Boutonnat), Miss Farmer is a world class illusionist in pop star disguise; or a fairy of pretension that has learned to masterfully produce all the ticks and odd mannerisms of a musical alchemist. Or maybe she’s just laughing of us all, as we just look on like idiots.

Born in Québec to a family of French immigrants, La Farmer lead a very simple and uneventful life before her family moved back to France when she was eight. This experience was an enlightening one for her, because it opened her world to the marvels of Romantic and Realist French literature, often being able to walk through the places described in most books – from there onwards, Mylène would have a fascination with Gothic culture and the darkest aspects of the human condition.

Known for her extremely creative and elaborate videos, which are always built around and within her songs, lengthening and modifying them to suit the twists and turns of the story they intend to tell, Mylène has often met criticism for the heightened sense of erotica that most of her videos deploy, as well as her apparent fascination with violent and/or unsettling images. With images of her being alternately burned alive or devoured by wolves, playing an angel chained to a steam engine while singing about AIDS or impersonating two twin sisters who lead opposite lifestyles, and are left in shock after their first, unexpected encounter only to be separated again when one of them is murdered by her pimp (who is then murdered by the twin left alive - isn't this the best soap opera you've ever read about? :-) ) Mylène has both fascinated and scandalized the French people over two decades with her love for pushing the envelope and taking exaggeration to unsuspected heights of kitsch.



Even though most of her material could be classed as ‘techno pop’, Farmer has often embraced other styles, venturing into hip hop/rock and almost-classical music whenever she felt the need to leave her comfort zone. She's also the brain behind the phenomenon that was Alizée, who will be, of course, object of a future post. If you want to buy her records, go to Amazon France.

Libertine

This synthesizer crazy song is the very definition of 80’s music! It is dead fun and combines an aggressive, cold background with Mylène’s overly sweet vocals and the inescapable chorus, which will have you enthralled with its airy harmonies and high pitched vocal hooks. It was her fourth single and first truly massive hit, turning her into a superstar and making of her début Cendres De Lune/Moon's Ashes one of the highest sellers in France during 1984. The video is, like all of Mylène’s, extremely imaginative and melodramatic, with her posing as a man and engaging in all sorts of crazy behaviour. This video is also the first one in history to show several people completely naked (including Mylène).

Désenchantée/Disenchanted

Mylène’s greatest hit ever, this is one of those songs that become inextricably linked to a particular time, both because they define it and because they are bound to it musically. I cannot imagine anyone releasing this now… Or maybe not! In 2002 Kate Ryan made a version of this, and it managed to be quite successful on the strength of a very good remix. Still, I prefer Mylène’s version, which sounds far fresher and more dramatic. This comes from the album L’Autre/The Other One, from 1991, and is the only one of Mylène’s singles to have a high chart placing in most European countries. The anti-child labour and police state video, which takes place at a Russian gulag, is spectacular!

California

The closest that Mylène has ever come to doing a power ballad, California is a strange song that delightfully manages to express the bizarre feelings of amusement, curiosity and emotional tension that most Europeans feel when they visit one of those grotesquely impersonal juggernauts that are major American cities. However, it does it over what could be described as a lazy hip-hop beat and an oppressive, yet surprisingly sparse instrumentation. With lyrics that border on what could be described a borderline psychotic state of euphoria, this is one of her more accomplished works of deliciously contrived and irresistible pop mastery. As it always happens with Mylène, the video is mesmerizing - the twins I talked about before are here! :-D.

Fuck Them All

The first single from her latest opus, the utterly strange-yet-alluring work Avant Que L’Ombre/Before The Shadows, this song is a journey into what seems to be Mylène’s vision of a world that exists only through fast-running images. The video is very bizarre, with Mylène being caged, fighting effigies made of cloth that bleed when she strikes them, and a wonderful final scene in which she disintegrates after having attained freedom by defeating her 'enemies'!

The Turkish Empress of music - Sezen Aksu

Sezen Aksu is not only the Queen of Turkish pop. To be more accurate, I ought to call her the mother of Turkish pop music. But she is not an ordinary mother, and she's had a child not just like any other: Sezen is unique both as an individual and a musician - simply put, there's no one else like her, and that's reflected in her music. Born to a couple of schoolteachers in 1954, Sezen was educated to be independent and strong from a very early age. As a teenager, she studied to become an agricultural engineer in Izmir, but left her career because she couldn't resist the call of music. Her first attempts at breaking the market were unsuccessful, but in 1977 she finally managed to achieve success. However, she didn't just become successful - she became a megastar overnight, and was given her Diva Nickname from the beginning: Minik Serçe (Little Sparrow - also one of her most beautiful songs). Since then, Sezen has been going from strength to strength, and is adored by almost everyone in Turkey - her concerts are always sold out, and her records sell by the truckload.

However, Sezen is as notorious for her music as she is for her social activism. In her songs she talks about ecological issues, the repression against the Armenian and Kurd minorities (in fact, in 1999 groups of nationalist Turks made her the object of scathing attacks in the media because she sang Kurdish and Armenian folk songs during a televised concert) and the terrible discrimination that many women still suffer in many parts of rural Turkey - all subjects that the authorities would rather keep hidden. Not only is this woman a WONDROUS artist, but she's also got a set of balls bigger than most men.



Her music is so unique because every single one of her compositions is a treasure in itself: a wonderful work of art that draws from both Turkish and Western classical music, plus the folk traditions of all the people from China to Spain, passing through Arabia, the Black, Aegean and Western Mediterranean seas, Russia and Central Europe... But all brought to contemporary times by blending it with rock, pop, techno, trance or even a very unique form of hip hop. And this is what's so special about Sezen's albums - it's like travelling in time and across half of the world, only without moving and being able to feel every single thing as present and modern, even familiar. And all this accompanied by Sezen's rich, silvery contralto and unbridled passion. What could be better?! If you want to purchase her records, go here.



It's been really difficult for me to make a selection of Sezen's music, especially because she has changed so much during her thirty years of career (yeah, she’s gone from a gorgeous young thing to a Pete Burns look-a-like… Sorry, but the catty bitch in me had to say it! :-D ). She started as a torch ballad singer, delved into Middle Eastern-influenced soft rock, then went through an era of synthesizer-crazy pop during the eighties, went back to purely traditional and classical music during the early nineties, and has steadily come closer and closer to dance music with her latest releases - but always remaining faithful to her classical and folk roots. Now, isn’t that FABULOUS? Enjoy!

Kalp Unutmaz/The Heart Doesn't Forget

This is one of my favourite songs by Sezen, from her awesome 2005 album Bahane (Excuse). It's a MONUMENTAL disco throw down kinda song, with a gorgeous violin introduction, a fast and insistent beat and a thunderous chorus that will have you shaking your body all over the place in no time! It's also very carefully made, with enormous attention being given to little details that embellish the song enormously and take it to the level of a true epic.

Deli Gönlüm/I'm Crazy Once Again

This is yet another one of Sezen's journeys into disco territory. However, this isn't as original as Kalp Unutmaz in the sense that it is more traditional Western disco music than anything else. Or maybe I'm being inexact: the melody has all the elements of a Turkish folk song, but it is cleverly twisted around to suit the 4/4 beat and the carefully disguised electronic effects. Beautiful.



Kapılıyız/Closed (Kıvanç K Mix)

This is Sezen in rapper mode! But honestly, this is not silly in any way: not at all! In fact, it’s one of her most intriguing songs. It has a very futuristic production that, for some reason, brings to mind a snowstorm… In spite of my crazy ramblings, this is a very cool track: both because it’s great, and because it evokes a cold, distant atmosphere. It’s amazingly good, though, and even though I personally detest hip hop, it does manage to elevate the genre above the rubbish that it is most of the time to create a sublime work of art. Oh, it's taken from the SPECTACULAR single Kardelen (Snowdrop), 2006. :-)

Su Gibi/Like Water

This achingly beautiful and delicate ballad comes (like Deli Gönlüm), from the album that made Sezen the darling of World Music fanatics, Şarkı Söylemek Lazim/The Songs Must Be Sung, from 2002. It begins with a faint electronic piano solo that mimics the sounds of dripping water, and gracefully flows into a melancholic, reposed ballad that suddenly rises into a melodramatic chorus highlighted by violins and a military-styled drum arch. It's gorgeous, and it honours its name.

The true Queen of contemporary music - Donna Summer

Even though I have already dedicated a post to Donna Summer, I just thought it’d be great to write a little more about this amazing (and, for the most part, unfairly ignored) singer. Let me begin by saying that Donna is a vocal heavyweight champion – if there were singer catfight tournaments (yay! :-) ), Donna would just trounce almost everyone else to a bloody throat. To be fair, we’d have to say that she’s the Mike Tyson of singers… only with class and without the bewildering stupidity. This said, it would be worth noticing that Donna hasn’t had a true hit in more than a decade, but that nevertheless is irrelevant to (us) disco fanatics, because Donna is The Diva par excellence and ought to be worshipped, because most things in contemporary music stem from what she did in the 70’s. And there’s nothing more to say about it. Uh-huh.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born in Boston amidst a very religious family who loved music and actively participated in the church choir. Which I guess explains why, as a teenager, Donna joined a rock band called The Crow, whose sound was largely based in Janis Joplin’s cringe-inducing ‘singing’ style, with which she butchered many a terrific song after swallowing enough drugs to make an elephant speak Aramaic – or die of an overdose, ahem. When the band failed to make any significant impact, Donna decided to drop from college, pack her things and leave for Germany, where she had been promised a lucrative recording contract. Soon enough, Donna became a musical theatre star, performing in everything imaginable from Hair to Porgy and Bess.
She also married a theatrical producer named Helmut Sommer, from whom she took her artistic name, and sang hundreds of demos that would become hits for many other performers of the time.



Soon enough she met Giorgio Moroder, who produced her first European hits and one day convinced her to record the ‘song’ that would make her known to international audiences: Love To Love You Baby. Initially seen as a joke -understandably, I’d say- they didn’t want to release it until a friend of Giorgio (who was either deaf or completely stoned) told him it was marvellous. They believed the hearing-impaired druggie’s advice, and the song became a huge hit on the strength of the second dullest orgasm in history - as Jane Birkin and incest-loving weirdo Serge Gainsbourg had already taken the 1st place for themselves with that horrid pool of vomit, 'Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus'. However, after that Donna went on to record some amazing material that was worthy of her exceptional voice, and many of her songs were enormous hits that have rightly become timeless classics. Others, such as the then groundbreaking 'I Feel Love', are credited with giving birth to techno music.

Unfortunately, Donna wasn’t happy with her image because it wasn’t Christian-clean, so she decided to take an abrupt turn in 1980, as the disco movement was being strangled by people with no taste whatsoever. This change, which could have been equivalent to career immolation for anyone else, gave Donna the creative freedom to indulge herself and helped her to survive the disco debacle. Which she did with very uneven results – while some of her efforts are quite sublime, especially when she delved into dance pop and rock, her R&B and funk attempts are quite unpleasant to the ear, and ought to be treated with caution by anyone who has a minimal degree of respect for their auditive health. And maybe for this reason, Donna slowly but steadily fell under the mainstream’s radar, only to be briefly resuscitated from her 'nostalgia act' status in 1999, during a spectacular VH1 special.



Thus, we come to the tracks I’ve selected! At last! :-) If you want to read more about Donna, visit my previous post about her. If you need to buy her records (and you know you do), go to Amazon.

MacArthur Park

This is one of Donna’s greatest hits ever – one of the four massive number ones that are part of her career’s many highlights. It is also one of my favourite songs ever, as long as she is the one performing it, of course. The best thing about it is that it showcases her exceptional vocal range quite well, since the melody is quite difficult. In fact, it does so to such degree of perfection that it makes one forget about the pointless lyrics, enabling us to concentrate on the amazing horns and Donna’s soaring high notes. Video of a spectacular live performance.

Hot Stuff [12” Version]

This is, again, one of Donna’s greatest classics and a very special track, because it indicates the precise point in which she began to break away from the purely disco sound that had characterized most of her work until the album Bad Girls, from which this song was taken. Or maybe we could say that it proves how versatile disco music is in reality by successfully fusing what is an aggressive rock song with disco’s basic 4/4 beat. Not only is this fabulous, but it shows the how innovative Donna and her producers really were. Video from her VH1 special.

This Time I Know It’s For Real

What can be said about this song? It is pop perfection. It takes the very best elements of 80’s pop music and displays them all in a three and a half minute journey to Paradise (oh, how I love my cheesy comments – not ;-) ). Anyway, I truly recommend you to give a listen to this, especially because it is easily some of the best music that Stock, Aitken and Waterman ever produced. Video.

I Will Go With You (Con Te Partirò) [Hex Hector Extended Mix]

At first I wasn’t sure about posting this song, because even though I like the original, this remix has some instrumental clutter that is frankly unnecessary and becomes annoying after a while. Still, the main body of the song is simply sublime, and Donna emerges victorious at the end of this spectacular melodic tour-de-force, which few people can even dream about touching. If you like dance music, you’ll love this – after you pass the weird and tinny first part of the song. Video of a spectacular live performance.

No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) - duet with Barbra Streisand

This is the 12" version of the legendary duet with The Streisand, to which I've already dedicated an entire post. I just thought it was pertinent to add it for the sake of completeness :-).

The Monarch-in-waiting of Turkish pop - Tarkan

Tarkan is Turkey’s reigning king of mainstream pop music, and the object of equally extreme adoration and despise by legions of people. Almost everyone has an opinion both on him as an individual and his music, which has kept him firmly set in the near center of Turkey’s mediatic spotlight and made his records multimillion sellers in its enormous music market. However, only one person manages to cast a faint shadow over Tarkan’s superstardom, and it is curiously the same individual responsible for both his and Sertab Erener’s careers, among others: Sezen Aksu, the Mother of Turkish pop. Which is not to say that Tarkan has been kept from attaining any glories, of course.

Savvily marketed as a somewhat sexually ambiguous teenage heartthrob, his meteoric rise to stardom has been a perpetual act of defiance to the more traditionalist and backwards sectors of Turkish society, which have made such exaggerate displays of outrage at his every action as to appear comical in their conservatism; from publicly denouncing his belly-waving, hip-shaking dance routines to taking offence at the silliest of gaffes, they’ve steadily provided Tarkan with the publicity he needed to become the herald of modern, young Turkish culture.

Named after a comic superhero, Tarkan was born in Germany and didn’t return to Turkey until the age of 13 – his passion had always been music, which he had actively studied since childhood. After failing his entrance exams at the University of Istanbul and being reduced to scrap a living in low end jobs, he decided to move back to Germany, only to be rapidly signed to a then mid-sized recording company, Istanbul Plak. He became instantly successful, with his début selling 750,000 copies in cassette format, and then hitting the two million mark when it was released as a CD a year later, in 1993. From there, Tarkan went on to enjoy ever increasing success both in Turkey and Europe (especially France, Garmany and Russia), especially with the international hit Şımarik/Spoilt (written by Aksu), which became enormously successful all over the world.



However successful he might have been, Tarkan has encountered a fair share of controversy throughout his career, from being criticized for saying ‘I’ve got to pee’ on live television (such pervert! ;-) ) and facing being tried for desertion and stripped of his citizenship for not attending his military service (he’s completed it already), to being photographed in a ‘compromising’ position with another man by the paparazzi. Still, these things have only served to increase his popularity, and the widespread answer to the ‘scandals’ that have plagued his career has been a resounding ‘so what?’

Thus, being most successful male singer in Turkey, Tarkan decided to break beyond its borders last year by releasing the utterly crap Come Closer, which is nowhere near his previous material. For this reason, I have only included material he sang before 2006, which is of an infinitely superior quality than what he’s done (or better said, been forced to do) as of late. If you want to buy his records, go here.

Şıkıdım (Hepsi Senin Mi?)/Shake (Who Do You Think You Are?)

This is one of Tarkan's catchiest and most interesting songs. Even though it just appears to be an ordinary bouncy pop song with acoustic guitars, the rise and the chorus have a distinctly traditional structure, and all the elements in it gracefully combine to make this a cheerful, almost exhilarating experience. Needless to say,t his has been on of his greatest hits ever, and one of its lyrics gave name to his 1994 album A-Acayipsin/Oh, You're Something Else. Video.

Dudu/Woman

This simply gorgeous song was yet another massive hit in Turkey, and also in Greece by means of Modern Laika star Peggy Zina (of course, I shall post about her very soon). Still, I prefer Tarkan's version, which is more poetic and gives greater importance to the way in which every single instrumental layer fuses into the whole. It is lovely and the title track for the massively successful 2003 EP of the same name. Video.

Kuzu Kuzu/Like A Lamb

This is by far the greatest hit of Tarkan's last porper Turkish language album Karma, from 2001. It is very different to the rest of the material in it, which has a very Euro-pop feel to it, albeit it is darker (and far better produced) than most music in that 'genre'. It begins like an ordinary contemporary R&B/pop song, only to evolve into what appears to be a tearful ballad... With a fast, insistent beat and a fast chorus from which you won't be able to escape! Video.

Uzak/Far Away

This track is also from the Karma album, and is more characteristic of the rest of tha material in it - none of the instrumentation is acoustic, and resorts to echoing harmonies and an abundance of electronic effects to build a somewhat ominous atmosphere, even if the lyrics are quite harmless. Still, it deserves a try, as it is quite danceable and has a superb break - I hope you love it! :-)

The Graces of British Soul - Eternal

Saying that Eternal are the best group to ever come out of Britain is an understatement. No one can come close to touching them because, quite frankly, no one can match the exceptional vocal talents of its members. Or better said, three of them. The most interesting thing about Eternal is that they gracefully progressed from somewhat tepid R&B-tinged bubblegum to full-fledged soul tour-de-forces in a very short period of time, deploying an astounding degree of musical finesse and good taste in the process. Their rise to the top of the charts can only be described as a shooting star: wonderful, but ultimately too brief and ending in unperturbed darkness (my attempts at figurative writing are awful, I know). Something that is also very curious about them is that their music was tailor made to fit the tastes of American audiences, but most of their attempts to break the American market failed miserably.

Founded in 1993 by four members of London’s prestigious Italian Conti Academy stage school, the group met success almost instantly with the hip hop-ish 'Stay', which rose to number 4 in the charts and paved the way for their enormously successful début album the next year. The girls soon followed with a string of Top 10 hits that established them as one of Britain’s most successful bands ever. Later next year, the group’s only weak vocalist, the ‘there-just-for-ornamental-purposes’ member Louise Nurding left the band amidst some controversy – she was the only white member, and it was suggested that the other girls, along with the group’s management, had pushed her out so that their chances to become successful in the US would increase. This has, however, been denied by everyone including Louise, who went to become a hugely successful performer in her own right, even if said success was also short-lived.



From there Eternal went to produce some of the best, most beautiful and sophisticated soul/pop ever – forget those annoying old crones The Supremes: all of Eternal’s members can sing circles around them (even Louise), and their material is light years ahead of anything that that whiny-voiced skeleton Diana Ross has ever squawked. However, the massive international success they deserved seemed to elude them, and outside the UK their efforts have fared is a somewhat patchy fashion: some of them have stormed the charts, while some others have just had a mediocre reception. Still, Eternal are the only British girl band who can say that they broke the Top 20 in the US and became very successful in Asia and Australia before the Spice Clowns vomited their filthy musical detritus in our ears.

After many glorious hits, Eternal became tangled in internal struggles that would ultimately bring their demise. Fed up of sharing the spotlight, sisters Vernie and Easter (who has a voice that can easily match Whitney Houston’s once perfect instrument), unceremoniously kicked out Kéllé Bryan, who was inexplicably unsuccessful as a solo artist, and after trying to replace her, released a less than sterling album that critics inexplicably loved. However, sales were dismal and Eternal were almost immediately dropped by their record company. This event was part of the debacle that rocked First Avenue Management and would also destroy Dina Carroll’s career (find more about her here) .



Anyway, if you want to buy any one of Eternal’s albums, go here.

Save Our Love

This is, in my opinion, the best track from Eternal’s début album. The production is impeccable and the beat has an urgency that invites you to dance, but doesn’t keep you from appreciating the beauty of the melody, the catchy chorus or the superb vocals. It is also very pleasant as background music (as all of their early offerings), and will lift your mood whenever you’re feeling down. Just what bubblegum ought to be.

Someday

The theme song for Disney’s nasty raping of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece 'The Hunchback of Nôtre Dame', this is one of the most beautiful songs that Eternal ever sang, which is saying a lot. In was released everywhere except in the US, where it was given to the infinitely less talented All-4-One. However, it was a massive hit worldwide, and is one of the finest tracks in their masterful sophomore album, Power Of A Woman. Truly delightful. Video.

Don’t You Love Me?

This is the gorgeous first single for their third album Before The Rain – like I Wanna Be The Only One (keep reading), it was a huge hit, but this song has more merit because it’s very unconventional: there are not many displays of vocal power or range in it, and it addresses social issues such as poverty, racial isolation and homelessness in a naïve, yet very charming way. Needless to say, I LOVE this song, as it’s one of their best. Video.

I Wanna Be The Only One – duet with BeBe Winans

This is just Heavenly (yes, with a capital H). It is the group’s only number 1 hit, and is one of the fondest memories I have of my adolescence – when I first heard it, I fell in love with them and have religiously followed everything they’ve done ever since. Probably most of you already know about it, but just allow me to say that it is a VERY well deserved hit that ought to have won the award for the Best Single category in the BRIT Awards, instead of All Saint’s soporific and shitty Never Ever. The original video is nice enough, but I'd rather post this awesome live performance.

Finally, I’d like to say that I’ve had a really difficult time finding photos of Eternal (I’d never post scans – I hate them), and none of them had all the girls together – that’s why I’ve had to post gorgeous Louise’s photo apart. Sorry. :-)

The newborn star of Israel - Shiri Maimon

Shiri Maimon should be one of Israel’s most promising performers not only because she possesses a superb, metallic mezzo and has the rare ability to engage the audience in her performance, but because she does have an enormous potential for a successful international career. As her impassioned, impeccably professional performance in Eurovision proved, Shiri doesn’t need to resort, unlike many singers, to silly props to distract her public from the tediousness of a mediocre delivery: she commands the stage and the auditorium in equal measure, and does so with effortless elegance. Which is something VERY rare in Eurovision – only a handful of performers have managed to do it… Curiously, they were the only performers who had some talent, or were not long past their prime (Carola, anyone? :-P ).

Shiri was born in the picturesque city of Haifa, but her family soon moved to the town of Qiryat Chaim (in reality a mere suburb of Haifa), which seems to be, for what I have read, notorious for three things: its weight lifting team, the best beaches in Israel and large masses of poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Still, Shiri doesn’t seem to have been deprived of opportunities to develop and show her talent, since she was a member of several pop groups since late childhood.

After a stint as a soloist in the Air Force Entertainment Band during military service, La Maimon worked as a bartender-cum-dancer and singer in a club, and then went to present a popular television show called “Exit” – from there she moved on to Kokhav Nolad/A Star Is Born, Israel’s version of Pop Idol (which, unbelievably, she didn’t win) and became a bona fide star who had the dubious ‘honour’ of representing her country in the Eurovision Dumpster Farce. The rest is, as they say, history!



Or not. Her album seems to have had decent sales, but only three singles were released from it and Shiri seems to have abandoned all efforts to keep her musical career going to co-star in one of Israel’s most popular soap operas, called Yeladot Ra’ot (Bad Girls). I don’t know Hebrew, thus for the sake of my sanity, please someone tell that girl to keep singing! The world and I… Well OK, the obsessive stalking freak that I am, need another album from her to stay alive – she is that good!

Without further ado, I present you with her songs but, as usual (and making use of my oh-so-not-original phrase, ehem), go to buy her only record so far (:-( ) here.

Ahava Ktana/Little Love

This is a gorgeous pop/rock song that shows the power in Maimon’s voice. The chorus is…How can I say it? AWESOME? Yes! That’s it! The song begins with a melancholic piano introduction that bursts into sheer pop perfection all of a sudden. It is by far my favourite song by hers, and was a very well deserved hit for her. The video is a Shakira rip off, but the song still preserves all of its magic.

Lean She’Lo Telkhi/Wherever You Won’t Go (Henree remix)

As impossible to believe as it is, this song wasn’t a single – WHY?!?! You’ll ask yourselves. Madness? That’s the best answer I’ve been able to come up with. This is a rather superb dance version of the rocky, gritty original song, which is simply gorgeous. The chorus is anthemic, and it’s carried by an urgent bass line that will make you get up and dance wherever you are. However, in this remix you also get beautiful touches, such as bells and distorted flute descending scales that make it stunning!

Ha-Sheket She Nisha’ar/The Silence That Remains

This is one of the most beautiful ballads to ever grace the Eurovision stage – it deserved so much more than a meager fourth place. The live version is, shockingly, even better, with Shiri reaching the top notes in chest-quality voice, instead of soft head one as in the recording. Still, this is indispensable for any self-respecting ballad freak (like moi! :-D ). The surprising thing is, the rest of the ballads in her album are as good, with a few of them being even better! Before you have an orgasm, please watch a live performance here.

Ad She Tavin Oti/Until You Understand Me

This is a somewhat bizarre attempt at R&B that sounds as dated as it truly is – around 2001 it could have been a hit, but in a 2005 album it is somewhat out of place. Still, it is more melodic than the tuneless crap released by, say, undeservingly successful groups such as Destiny’s Child and the (bad) jokes that are the Pussycat Dolls and Danity Kane. Obviously, Shiri pulls it off superbly, and it makes for a curious change of register within the stylistic mode of her album.

Month's Heading: February, Roman Time of Purification

The first day of every month I will make an introductory ‘article’ (please, forgive my pretentiousness) about that particular time of the year, which will basically be a collection of facts that I find peculiar written in my rather chaotic style ;-). Obviously, that introduction will have some songs to illustrate the feelings that such month evokes in me, and hopefully will in you. Needless to say, not all these songs will be pop music and many of them won’t be danceable, but then again, not all the musicians I will post about will sing pop in the strictest sense of the word. Or some in any sense, let’s be honest. :-)

Something peculiar about the month of February is that it is the most recent addition to the Roman calendar, and thus to ours. Originally, the Romans considered the cold winter season as month-less, and only Numa Pompilius’ exasperation with the inadequate lunar calendar, which kept moving back and forth through the seasons, gave January and February their rightful place in the beginning of the solar year.



February received its name from the Roman ritual of februum (Purification), which was celebrated in the 15 th day of the month. Given the, let’s say 'peculiar nature' of Roman religion, I don’t want to imagine in what did that ‘purification’ consist, but I guess that it was an important ritual, gory displays of brutality and all, and thanks to it February became the 28 day month that we know and love… When it’s not snowing and we can see the sun for more than half an hour every day. Oh, English weather…



Still, things weren’t that well and the months seemed to have a love for wandering across the seasons, the tramps, and several measures had to be implemented: a Mensis Intercalaris originally covered the days missing to keep things in their place, and during the Middle Ages February was given two more days by celebrated English mathematician, astronomer and literate Johannes de Sacro Bosco (whose name translates to the rather tacky John of Hollywood), who taught everything imaginable at the University of Paris – just imagine having him as your supervisor… ugh!



Well, anyway, the Gregorian Reform changed all these patchy adjustments so that we could have Easter right at the vernal equinox, and not anywhere else in the year. Apparently, when the reform was implemented, which forced all official calendars to be advanced ten days, angry mobs revolted against this measure because it took 10 days away from their lives, which is a bit strange, given the fact that most of these people were peasants and life for them was perpetual torture…

But enough of my droning! Here you have two songs: Loreena McKennitt’s folk marvels Snow and Seeds Of Love, from the gorgeous EP ‘A Winter Garden’ (I know it's a Christmas album, but what the heck, it's wintery music ;-P). If you like what you hear, buy any of her wondrous records here.