10 September 2025 - Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Cyndi Lauper rose to fame in the 1980s with this energetic song that's all about girl power.... that was written and originally performed by a man, Robert Hazard, who wrote and performed the song from the male perspective.

Lauper flipped the script, upped the poppiness, recruited The Hooters for her backing band, and a classic was born. 

Oh, and that's really her mom.

A decade later, when it was time for that greatest hits albums, Lauper rerecorded the song with a reggae flair.  Was it as good?  No.  Was it different?  Yep.

Yep, this is part of Dawn's concert series.  She sure did see Cyndi Lauper in Toronto.  And this is probably Lauper's last tour, so this is one of her last live performances of the song.  

9 September 2025 - Mitski - Washing Machine Heart

Mitski was born in Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother and is really a citizen of the world.  

She lives in Nashville now.   But I don't know that I'd call her Tenneseean.

Anyway, this 2018 song, from her album Be The Cowboy, is one of her best known - never released as a single but charted overseas anyway.  It's kind of a weird ballad about.... well, a washing machine?  Domestic bliss?  The exact opposite of domestic bliss?   At any rate, the throbbing keyboard and steady, hard beat are somewhat jarring up against the lyrics.  

And yet it works.  And you're going to be humming this song all day long. 

Somehow, the live performance at the 2022 Glastonbury music festival in the UK is even more jarring.  SHE DOES NOT BLINK.  Also, the audience knows the words because, well, it was a hit. 

Her fans know the song so well, she doesn't even need to sing it, and often, she doesn't.

Now THAT'S iconic.  

8 September 2025 (Special Edition) - Supertramp - The Logical Song

Rick Davies of Supertramp has passed away.  It doesn't seem logical, but here we are.  

This huge hit song - one of the band's biggest - was written by Roger Hodgson and features Davies on backing vocals and practically every instrument with keys.  

Anyway, his music will be missed.   

8 September 2025 - HUNTR/X - Golden

Let's talk about KPop Demon Hunters.  

Yep.  The biggest Netflix movie of all time is a juggernaut.  Basically, it's about a girl KPop group - HUNTR/X - who are rivals with a boy group - Saja Boys.  Oh, and the boys are actual demons and the girls are, well, demon hunters.

And one of the girls is half demon.

And people love this movie.  CRITICS love this movie.  I've seen it.  It is a fun romp and there is a lot of great music.  Several actual KPop groups were consulted in making this movie, And real musicians - Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami - really performed this song. It's a real song.  

And it is the real current #1 song on the Billboard pop chart, right now, in September 2025 as we write this.  

And no, I didn't know it was the #1 song when I started writing this.  I DID know it was a big hit song.  

Anyway, check out the movie, and definitely check out the song. 

5 September 2025 - Kneecap - C.E.A.R.T.A

Kneecap are an Irish rap group who perform in a mix of English and Gaelic.  This particular song has a Gaelic title - it means "rights" - and was their debut in 2017. They've since released a lot of angry, loud, innovative, acclaimed music. 

They are controversial and bombastic, but the trio has some serious skills.  

By the way, in Ireland, these guys play arenas.  They're huge.  And they deserve to be. 

Also, they would prefer strongly that Ireland be reunified.  

4 September 2025 - Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild

A large number of great albums came out last week.  

By a whisker, my favorite was Man's Best Friend, the new set from Sabrina Carpenter, and my opinion of it is rather unexpected.  I expected to think it was just all right.  Nope.  It's great.  Highly recommend.

This was the lead single, and it took a while for the combined country/80's homage to grow on me, but it did.   This is, in my opinion, a solid candidate for Song of the Summer - we're going to have to wait and see what Billboard says about that, I guess - and one of the biggest hits of the year so far. 

The song is also a little mean.  But doesn't it sound fun?

Yes, despite how new it is, she has performed the song live a few times - like this performance from Lollapalooza a few weeks ago.  Man, I remember when Lollapalooza was cool.  And yes, Sabrina Carpenter is very cool.... but it's different now.  Anyway, here's the performance.

3 September 2025 - The Beaches - Last Girls At The Party

I sincerely questioned whether or not I would ever post this song.  It didn't connect me as immediately as "Blame Brett" did.  

Then I listened to their new album, No Hard Feelings, which came out last Friday.  I was way more blown away with the song in context..... and also, it is the title song of the album.   They're really leaning pretty hard into a party girl mystique on the album in general, but in a fun and self-deprecating way.  

These ladies are talented and I hope they don't burn themselves out too soon.

I mentioned yesterday that my sister had seen a band with Lights opening in Buffalo earlier this year.  

That band was The Beaches.  And of course they did this.  And of course they sounded great.   And of course she got video.  

And a couple of days ago, I updated another post about The Beaches because she got that song, too.  (And I updated THIS ONE today)

My sister was also there when they debuted this song in January.  She's a big fan of The Beaches.  Wanna see that one?  I know you do... and that's good, because I added it as well.