51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply gorgeous, September 24, 2001
This review is from: Tropical Brainstorm (Audio CD)
I remember exactly where I was when I heard Kirsty MacColl was dead. I was getting off work around midnight in December 2000, and the radio announced that she'd been killed in a boating accident in Cozumel. I immediately thought back to the first time I'd heard her music; on the "She's Having a Baby" soundtrack, she covered The Smith's "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby", and I've been a fan ever since. The untimely death of this mainly underrated songstress is a huge loss for the music industry. "Tropical Brainstorm" seems a very fitting last album; a breezy, cozy CD that sounds like Kirsty was happy and enjoying life. Her obvious love of Cuba and its history is prominently displayed here, since most songs have a cuban influence. And yet, she never forgets her native Surrey, England, using phrases like "lying git" (on the track "England 2, Colombia 0"). One of my favorite tracks is a beautiful piece called "autumngirlsoup" that is tragic and lovely all at once; "I'm an autumn girl on the endless search for summer", she sings, "'cause I need some love to cook my frozen bones". If you've never experienced her music, there's no time like the present to enjoy it. BUY THIS CD. Anyone in the know understands what a blow to music this tragic loss is- I quote the chilling lyrics of "Alegria": I close my eyes, another dream arrives
Taking me deeper, into the sweet water
Filling my senses with happiness and joy
Alegria, alegria
Happiness and joy
Goodbye, Kirsty- you will be sorely missed.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hasn't left my player for two weeks!, July 30, 2001
This review is from: Tropical Brainstorm (Audio CD)
What do you get when you combine a sly British wit with an open Carribean beat and a genuine love for the Cubanos? Kirsty Maccoll! I bought this one after one listen in the store, and I haven't regretted my purchase one bit. From the fun "Mambo de la Luna" to the lighthearted sarcasm of "In these shoes" or "Here comes that man" or "England 2: Columbia 0" to the wistful "Auntumngirlsoup" to the brilliant latin beats of "Alegria" this album is a must have. I laughed nonstop through "Treachery." Starts with "I'm stalking a fan..."
Even the lyrics in Spanish are clever and fairly easy to follow, even for a student whos hasn't spoken in about four years. If I were you, I'd buy this one and "dance around in my socks."
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Kirsty -- It Glitters, It Shines, April 29, 2001
This review is from: Tropical Brainstorm (Audio CD)
I first heard of Kirsty MacColl back in 1989 or '90, singing "Fairytale of New York" with The Pogues, the most clever, heartbreaking, and lovely Christmas song. It is like Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," hung up with tinsel and mistletoe.
Kirsty's talents come out in full form with "Electric Landlady" from 1991. "All I Ever Wanted," "He Never Mentioned Love," "We'll Never Pass This Way Again," and "Halloween," are so wonderful because they aren't overwrought, and as a songwriter, she refuses to romanticize love all out of proportion, turning it into something niave, artificially sweet, and marketable but ultimately silly and unfamiliar. Kirsty proved that something intelligent could happen while translating relationships into songs -- that the pain and frustration they create could be transformed into something lovely, in part because these things are so familiar to people who have been in love. (Kirsty and Lloyd Cole are the only ones who seemed to get it.)
The Latin-Cuban influence heard on "My Affair" courses through "Tropical Brainstorm" from start to finish and the results are simply brilliant. Beneath the marvelous beats and rythms of islands is classic Kirsty. Love still goes wrong in "England 2 Colombia 0," "Autumngirlsoup," and "Wrong Again," but more often than not it is smart and sardonic, as in "Designer Life," "Celestine," and "Us Amazonians." My favorites -- "In These Shoes," "Treachery," and "Here Comes That Man Again" -- place Kirsty on top, well in control . . . sort of . . . in three different situations with men, and involve her protagonists and: (1) the problems they have with very stylish but inconvenient footwear; (2) "infidelity" in the record store leading to stalking and voyeurism, and (3)cybersex and voyeurism.
"Tropical Brainstorm" is now being released in the U.S. just over a year following it's appearance in Britain, and not quite half a year since Kirsty's death. The album gets better with every listen and, of course, leaves her heartbroken fans wondering what would have come next (probably not the "thrash album" she promised after her very last appearance on "Later With Jools Holland", but who, I ask, would have complained?).
All of Kirsty's albums deserve to be heard over and over again, and for the newcomer "Tropical Brainstorm" is a fantastic beginning. For the rest of us, who loved Kirsty and miss her terribly, this recording confirms what we already knew: she was a singular talent, ruthlessly honest about love's joys and sinister leg-traps, gorgeous, vulnerable, luminous, and simply beautiful.
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