Word: popped
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This kind of quietly self-punishing, ultimately uplifting pop came out of Glasgow on a regular schedule between about '79 and '81, most of it on the Postcard record label. Postcard featured four bands: Josef K, the Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera--pre-Dire-Straits-on-downers Aztec Camera--and our rangy heroes, whose Postcard releases have been harder to find than true love for the last, oh, ten years. Postcard's head honcho revived his label last year, and two of the results so far are The Heather's on Fire--which collects all of Orange Juice's early...
...collect the five songs from the last two Heavenly singles, which have been out for the better part of the year on the English Sarah label (about which you can read in the forthcoming Harvard Advocate, should you care to). Heavenly is an extremely talented and extremely happy pop group from Oxford whose ideology, until now, has consisted in the systematic replacement of the most depressing features of adult life'n `love with their more pleasurable childhood equivalents; the band's iconography includes butterflies and flowers and paper cutouts, and bandleader Amelia Fletcher's voice would be called girlish were...
...wonder about Annie Lennox. At one point, the pop diva (incomprehensibly top-billed) appears from behind a pillar, only to wail a version of Cole Porter's "Everytime We Say Goodbye" as the two lovers caress and cavort around sadly, if such a thing is possible. There are several such pointless dance sequences (sans Lennox), which look as if they might have been choreographed by Janet Jackson. Aside from the sitar music with which "Edward II" opens, the MTV analogue, like that of the perfume ad, is impossible to avoid. All you "campsters" out there might be getting...
...about..." ("Hold Me for a While"). These songs are perfect for a romantic evening on board a cruise ship, with a gentle breeze and a sky full of stars. Don't be surprised to find them hits on the "easy listening" station. Their relative safety in conforming to mainstream pop ballad expectations contrasts with "When Love Comes to the Rescue" and "Lover's Holiday." These two songs blend synthesizers, acoustic piano and heavily syncopated rhythms into a silky tropical sound. Deep piano bass notes and Adams' voice soar together irresistably...
Somehow Ms. Adams manages to court pop sound and still keep her songs full of the unexpected and original. Strong elements of jazz and rhythm & blues underlay her instrumentals. For instance, David Sanborn solos on alto saxophone for Adams' smoldering version of James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight." Adams' voice brings far more desperation and emotion to the lyrics than Taylor's version. Plus, the low-pitched crooning here will intensify your appreciation of her range in later cuts like Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind." The fact that these two songs...