19 April 2023 - Paula Abdul ft. MC Scat Kat - Opposites Attract

Let's just open up with the question you all have.

Who the hell is MC Scat Kat?

Good question.

The answer is that they were Bruce DeShazer (also known as Tony Christian) and Marv Gunn, collectively known as the Wild Pair.  MC Scat Kat just played their part in the video.  Previously members of Mazerati, this was not the Wild Pair's only hit, 

The video was inspired by Gene Kelly, who danced with a cartoon mouse named Jerry (yes, that Jerry) in Anchors Aweigh.   Clearly, Paula thought Tom deserved some love.  Abdul, a choreographer of dance first, choreographed both her moves and those of the cat, which were animated in what was considered to be a ground-breaking video.

The song hit #1 in the US, her fourth from the Forever Your Girl album, making her the fourth artist to have four number 1 hits from the same album (a feat that would be matched four more times).

The song itself is actually clever.  You're fooled by the cat, but the lyrics are pretty smart and mature.

18 April 2023 - Charli XCX - You're the One

About ten years ago, I got more irrationally angry about a post than I ever had.  You see, that day, Scott Colvin posted about the Icona Pop song, "I Love It (I Don't Care)".  That song was essentially Icona Pop singing over top the demo track provided to them by the songwriter, a Ms. Charlotte Emma Aitchison of Cambridge, England. 

I was going to post that song the next day.  Literally.  I had a whole post written that took a different take than Scott did.  I was going to be highlighting the extra vocals, which belonged to Ms. Aitchison's.  And, it probably would have ended at that - I mean, until the unignorable "Fancy", of course.  Then again, I might not have been into that song so much if not for what came next.

Instead, Scott's post got me looking into the other music Ms. Aitchison had made, which at the time, was a simgle album and a bunch of mixtapes.  The album, True Romance, was on heavy rotation for me for a couple of years.  There were a ton of great singles on that album, and I posted about a lot of them.  At last count, there were approximately 18 Charli XCX posts on this blog, which doesn't include the ones on the other one.  

Somehow, I missed this one, and it's a good thing I did.  You see, "I Love It (I Don't Care)" is one of two songs she wrote on a particular day in 2011, based off beats given to her by producer Patrik Berger. The other was a song called "In The Dark", later titled "Dancing In The Dark". You can still here that early demo version.  It still exists.  

 

Colorsounds · Charli XCX - "Dancing In The Dark" - and I never post stuff from Soundcloud, so this must be important.

When it made it onto True Romance in its final form, it was called "You're The One". And, somehow, I never talked about what was one of my favorite songs from that album until today.   It's a synth-pop goth love song, and it is a gem.

Today, Charli XCX uses a lot of autotune, reportedly because she doesn't like her voice.   She seems to have found her sound.

She's wrong about her voice.  Here's a performance of this song with just a piano, some drumsticks, and a river in Austin, TX.

17 April 2023 - Nelly Furtado - I'm Like A Bird

I was really just lacking for a blog post for today, and for some reason, I mentioned Nelly Furtado yesterday, and, well, here we are.

This song was released as the lead single from her debut album, Whoa, Nelly! in 2000, and it quickly became a massive commercial successworldwide. Right off the bat, she hits a home run, 

The song was written by Furtado herself, and it was produced by Brian West and Gerald Eaton of the duo Track & Field. "I'm Like a Bird" was a departure from the typical pop songs of its time, with its unique blend of acoustic and electronic elements, as well as its introspective lyrics.

"I'm Like a Bird" received widespread critical acclaim upon its release, with many critics praising Furtado's unique voice and her ability to blend various musical genres into a cohesive whole. The song went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2002 (the last Canadian to win that award as of this writing, by the way), further cementing Furtado's status as a rising star in the music industry.

The song is an expression of freedom and self-discovery, with Furtado singing about her desire to be free like a bird and to follow her dreams wherever they may lead her. The chorus, with its soaring melody and catchy hook, became an instant classic, and it remains one of Furtado's signature songs to this day.

14 April 2023 - The East Pointers & Vishtèn - Miraculous Meals

You're probably wondering why I'm sharing March content in April.  

There's two reasons for that.  First, I didn't know what to do with this song, which isn't officially released, and I have no songwriting or recording information about this song.  I just know this recording, which is amazing, which brings me to the second reason, and that is that the music and the story behind the genesis of this song was far too cool to make you wait 11 months to hear it.

The East Pointers & Vishtèn are bands with a lot of things in common.  

They are both folk groups that were originally trios.

They're both from Prince Edward Island and have known each other for decades, since childhood - in fact, The East Pointers recorded their first EP in the living room of two members of Vishtèn - the very same room that the video below was recorded.

And, each has a member that's passed away tragically in the last year or so - each a sibling of another member of the group, and in the case of Vishtèn, also a partner - Pastelle LeBlanc.  We spoke about Koady Chiasson last month. Pastelle passed away at age 42 of breast cancer.  

Cancer sucks, people.  

In the memories of Koady Chaisson and Pastelle LeBlanc, the four surviving members of these two groups got together in Pastelle and Pascal Miousse's living room and made some uplifting, beautiful music.  

Will the four of them get together and make a superband?  Was this a one-off?  No one knows that today except the four people making these beatiful sounds, but I hope the music helped to heal them, at least part-way.

Yes, I have a Vishtèn post queued up for next March.  Don't fret.

13 April 2023 - Dua Lipa - Break My Heart

I don't like lying to my readers, so I'm going to be upfront.

I use Wikipedia for a lot of my research.

And this song, by Wikipedia, is described as "a retro-futuristic dance-pop and disco-funk song with elements of house and 1980s music that is set to a Europop beat."  Which, really, is a pretty accurate description.  

Here's something else WIkipedia taught me.  The song was written by Dua Lipa, Melissa Webb, Andrew Wotman, Ali Tamposi, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson..... Andrew Farriss? Michael Hutchence?  How did Dua Lipa collaborate with someone who died when she was 2?

It turns out that the songwriting team - minus Farris and Hutchence -wrote this song feverishly, and immediately recorded and produced it.  Then, they all played it back, and once they heard the bassline from "Need You Tonight" clearly, they knew what they had to do - credit the songwriters and give INXS a publishing credit.  

Which Andrew Farriss very much appreciated.  

But, despite the obvious influence, this song isn't "Need You Tonight".  It IS a bold song about a woman questioning her choices in men, and it is a poppy gem.  Surprisingly, despite being one of her best known songs worldwide - topping charts worldwide - it didn't quite crack the Top 10 in the states.  

11 April 2023 - Laura Cantrell - Just Like A Rose

It's been a while since we featured Laura Cantrell.  

Nine years, in fact - which is the last time she released music.

This is her new single.  It is the best single released this year by a former vice president of equity research for Bank of America (a job she left in 2000 - this is true). Toiling for more than 20 years in the music industry, she has achieved a lot of critical acclaim and deserves a lot more than that.  

Her new album, Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions, celebrating her more than 20 years of work, comes out in June.  It is almost guaranteed to be great.  The first single, the title song from that album, is here.  

10 April 2023 - Sebadoh - The Freed Pig

There's a reason I'm posting this today, and it has to do with Friday's post.

A cover of this song by the Breeders, produced by J Mascis, appeared on the Head to Toe EP.  When I sat back and thought about this, I laughed heartily.

Why?

"The Freed Pig" , in its original form, is a song from Sebadoh's 1991 album "III" that was directed towards J Mascis, the frontman of Dinosaur Jr., a band that Lou Barlow, the founder of Sebadoh, was previously a part of. The song's lyrics were meant to be a biting commentary on the strained relationship between Barlow and Mascis, and their musical and personal differences.

The song's opening lines, "You were right, I was battling you, trying to prove myself," reflect Barlow's feelings of frustration and insecurity in his relationship with Mascis. The lyrics, "I tried to bury you with guilt; I wanted to prove you wrong," suggest a sense of resentment towards Mascis, who had a dominant presence in Dinosaur Jr.

Throughout the song, Barlow's lyrics continue to express a mix of anger and vulnerability. The lines, "I'm self-righteous, but never right, so laid back, but so uptight," highlight the contradictions in his personality, while the chorus, with its repeated line "Now you will be free," suggests a sense of liberation from the constraints of his relationship with Mascis.

The song itself is a lo-fi classic. Barlow delivers the vocals over fuzzy guitar with a bit of detachment (it had been a few years) and that's kind of the point.