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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reworkings.....Now Bring On The New Original Material!,
By
This review is from: Body Acoustic (Audio CD)
With her latest release, the stripped-down THE BODY ACOUSTIC, Cyndi Lauper continues to reinvent herself and relaunch her stalled career. Starting with 2003's AT LAST, both Lauper and her label have been trying to make people forget that she was the Girl Who Just Wanted To Have Fun, and instead recast her as a serious singer/songwriter. THE BODY ACOUSTIC does a good job in advancing this goal....stripped down to an acoustic setting, Lauper's lyrics are at the forefront like never before, while her voice just shines. A prime example is the opening cut, the rollicking "Money Changes Everything." One of the key tracks off of Lauper's SHE'S SO UNUSUAL debut, the song's edgy new-wave groove has been replaced with a stomping alt-country one. Amid handclaps and harmonica, this song about true friends and fame (and maybe, just maybe, record company politics) takes on a totally different vibe twenty-two years down the road; you can just hear the experience and hard-won knowledge in Lauper's voice as she sings the lines "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 until the end/Ah but everybody's only/Looking out for themselves." Still a true winner! "All Through The Night" has a quiet elegance to it, and could have done very nicely on it's own without Shaggy's rasta rap, which seems calculated and tacked on at the last minute for the guest star x-factor. "Time After Time" is probably one of the most beautiful ballads of the last 45 years, and it's hard to imagine Lauper improving upon the original, but she does just that. Presented here as a duet with Sarah McLachlan, the track is even more delicate and lovely than the first time around. Once again, it seems as if Lauper (and McLachlan for that matter!) is able to draw from years of experience now, and infuses the cut with all that knowledge, pain and insight. I don't use the word "masterpiece" very often, but this is one time when it truly fits! "She Bop" is one of the tracks that most benefits from THE BODY ACOUSTIC's starker arrangements. Devoid of the frantic pace and synth-heavy tempo of the original, this ode to that greatest of taboos (for those of you who've been in a coma the last 23 years.....that would be self-pleasuring!!) takes on a more intimate, almost pleading, vibe, reaching it's zenith with a line that pretty much got buried in the original version's mix ("I bop...you bop...a...they bop/Be bop...be bop...a...lu...she bop/I hope He will understand"). The whistling is also a nice touch. VERY cool! From here we segue into the disc's two new tracks, the sublime "Above The Clouds" and the emotional "I'll Be Your River." "Above The Clouds" (written for Lauper's young son) has a muted quality to it, which is actually a good thing...it allows both Lauper's heartfelt vocal and Jeff Beck's tasteful guitar to absolutely sparkle. "I'll Be Your River", a soul-tinged torch ballad for Lauper's husband, is a mix of fear, heat, yearning, support, devotion and trepidation....in other words, it covers all the bases of love and commitment, much like a real relationship. Lauper has rarely sounded so soulful and earthy, and the lyrics are both touching and painful ("Here stands a fortress built with great walls of silence/Ready to crumble at the slightest word/Finding the right one is becoming a science/I'd like to scream but I ain't gonna be heard"). Yet, in the end, Lauper lets us know that, even with all the pain and work and uncertainty, it just might be worth it after all ("What if all these fears/That we both buy into/Melt away and disappear"). Lovely! The thing that becomes most apparent upon hearing these two tracks is that it's time for Lauper to get in the studio and record a full album of new original material: between these two tracks and a number of the lost SHINE cuts, she's writing some of the best songs of her career. I've always felt that "Sisters Of Avalon" never got it's just dues, in large part due to record company politics (Lauper's label had pretty much written her off by the time the album of the same name came out in 1997). There's a pulsating, driving energy to the song that's still evident in this more unadorned version, and Lauper's vocals soar, particularly on the boarderline rapped bridge ("They brought her in in a new white dress/But the stain left an ache on her mother's breast/Now all that's left are the ghostly steps from a distant corridor"). Anchored by a throbbing baseline and Ani DiFranco's and Vivian Green's sterling harmony vocals, this is still an undiscovered gem! The same can't be said for "Shine"....as a relatively new cut - the title cut of Lauper's non-US released 2001 CD - the singer makes the mistake of doing an almost note for note version of the original track. It would have been much cooler to see her do it as, say, an almost spoken word ballad, just to shake things up. "True Colors" is both sweet and raw (as well as a tad bit pitchy!), while "Water's Edge" is nakedly haunting. The disc could have easily ended on a strong note with "Fearless", all folksy and bare-boned. Instead, we get the only real bomb on TBA, a frantic, silly version of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", featuring Japanese super-stars (?) Puffi AmiYumi. This signature song of Lauper's has been remixed and rerecorded so many times that this would have been the perfect time to try something new, say, a hushed, bare bones acoustic arrangement. Too bad. But, overall, I've got to say THE BODY ACOUSTIC is a very nice reworking of some classic Cyndi Lauper material. However, I also have to reiterate...it's time for Lauper to get back in the studio and record an album of new original material (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics, something extra rare on best-of's and re-recording packages).
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lauper Works Her Magic,
This review is from: Body Acoustic (Audio CD)
Cyndi Lauper weaves magic with her new release, "The Body Acoustic," a collection of her greatest hits, notable non-singles and two new compositions recorded with sparse instrumentation. Like her superb 2003 standards collection, "At Last," her valentine to her native New York, one could say that Lauper is simply cashing in on another recent trend; this time of releasing acoustic reinterpretations of an artist's own former catalogue. However, the bulk of her songwriting is ideal for an intimate setting, which makes "The Body Acoustic" not only a solid but a justified release; not a mere pause before releasing a complete disc of original material.
Lauper kicks off the disc with the assistance of Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazarra, one of many special guests she enlisted for inclusion on this project. Singing her 1984 hit "Money Changes Everything," Lauper nearly replicates the electricity she exudes when performing the song in concert. With a sprawling vocal range that is equal parts gritty and graceful, it is hard for the majority of her guests to keep up with her at all, making their inclusion essentially inconsequential. The only exceptions are Sarah McLachlan, who provides perfect compliment to "Water's Edge" and 1984's #1 smash "Time After Time," and Shaggy, who helps Lauper turn "All Through the Night" into a delightfully reggae-infused affair. "Sisters of Avalon" is a funky, rousing excursion. Though at once they seem ideal to lend their talents to the track, Ani Difranco and Vivian Green simply fall into the background on a song that fits nicely in the scheme of the disc but adds nothing original to the original 1997 version. Green's presence is felt more strongly, however, on "I'll Be Your River," one of the two new tracks. A song of an endless, unselfish love, Lauper knocks this one straight out of the ballpark. Even sharper, however, is the second new selection, "Above the Clouds." A warm-bath ballad featuring Jeff Beck on lead guitar, the song is drenched in utter beauty and gorgeous lyrics that Lauper wraps her voice around with warmth and style. "Stand tall/And glide/When you're all alone in the crowd/Don't fall/Don't hide/When you walk above the clouds/When you walk above the clouds." This collection would be incomplete without "True Colors," her huge 1986 hit she recorded in honor of her friend Gregory who passed away from AIDS. It is no surprise that the song has become so important to the homosexual community, for it waxes so pointedly of unconditional empathy and acceptance, no matter who or what one may be. "I see your true colors shining through/I see your true colors/And that's why I love you/So don't be afraid to let them show/Your true colors/Are beautiful like a rainbow." Also included are the invigorating "Shine," "Fearless," an intense moody take on 1984's infamous "She Bop" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," which remains just as festive as ever. Although it is a disappointment that "Hat Full of Stars," Lauper's true masterpiece, is not represented on this collection, "The Body Acoustic" is everything a fine album should be. Loyal fans and casual listeners alike will all find something to love. The DualDisc features 4 live performances, a look behind-the-scenes and the album in enhanced stereo.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Awesome Album!!!,
By
This review is from: Body Acoustic (Audio CD)
I just want to advise everyone that this is the clean version
(without XCP copy protection), of this great album, the Dual Disc is clean too (that one never had XCP on it). This is a great album (she really made her biggest hits fresh and new, and the new songs on here are great too, it's of super high quality. Cyndi said her next album will have all new songs, so don't worry that Cyndi isn't writing a lot of new songs, but this album is awesome anyway! Sony really should appologize to Cyndi and her fans for putting the XCP on the first version of this, but at least they just released this clean version, hopefully fans will be able to find it.
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