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Cyndi Lauper - The Body Acoustic
- As far as nostalgia goes, the 80's can go either way. There's acid wash jeans and Jersey girl hair (glass half-empty), or the Brat Pack and Guns n' Roses (glass half-full). When it comes to covering great 80's tunes, you can either destroy what was once great about a single, or you can pay homage. Then there's the third category, which is almost never done. You can reinvent the song in a way that neither taints the original, and can even make a new space for itself.
Cyndi Lauper's "The Body Acoustic", manages to occupy the third category. Starting out with one of her lesser known singles "Money Changes Everything", from her She's So Unusual album, she doesn't deviate too far from the original, and the collaboration with bass player and back-up singer Adam Lazzara adds a new sound to an already great song.
Ms. Lauper keeps the momentum going with Shaggy -mind you, I don't think in either heaven or hell did anyone ever conceive of this grouping- opening up "All Through The Night" on what is one of my favorite tracks on the whole CD. That their voices actually compliment one another is a complete surprise, or maybe it's just that we can hear these two good-time-loving pros having so much fun in the studio that it's the mood we're picking up on more than the musicality. Either way, it works for them, and for me as well.
As far as I'm concerned, the pinnacle of this album is Lauper's duet with Sarah McLachlan. This faithful reinvention of "Time After Time" brings me back to the feeling of the original, while adding something new. I imagine it must be daunting to cover so beloved a song, while recording it alongside the artist who is responsible for said original. But even if there exists ample reason for reverence and trepidation, there's no sense of any apprehension on McLachlan's part. In fact, McLachlan sounds closer to her roots, more like the artist from her Fumbling Towards Ecstasy album than she has in years here.
Of the new tracks, "Above The Clouds" works best for me. Lauper and guest artist/guitarist Jeff Beck work well together (though at this point in the album that should go without saying in relation to any guest artist), and craft a supple track that shows us Lauper still can sing as well, if not worlds better, than any of the female pop artists on the scene today wearing the appropriate lack of clothing to compensate for the appropriate lack of singing ability.
The rest of the album isn't remarkable. It's great background music, but it's not going to grab you like the first half of the album. The only other two tracks here that are going to grab you are "True Colors" (which, after seeing forty thousand Kodak commercials, and hearing Phil Collins' cover, is getting a mite old), and the iconic "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" with guest artist Puffy AmiYumi, which I would say she more successfully reinvented on her greatest hits album, Twelve Deadly Guns.
All in all, I hope all you 80's nuts out there go and buy this CD. If only for a half hour, you'll take yourself back to everything that was great about the 80's (Ms. Lauper), and can start to erase the glass-half-full portion (New Kids...).
Reviewer: David Fallo
new
Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 9.70
Reader's Votes: 13
Added: 14-Jan-2006
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