This got me thinking about what other female artist evoke this feeling of frustration in me. It was a long list and I had to whittle it down to just four for my box.
When Sophie B. Hawkins burst on the scene with “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” I was so happy. One of the first (and only?) lesbian love songs to go top 10 on the Billboard top 100 gave me hope for the years to come. I loved her first album as well as her less successful second album “Whaler”.
Subsequent albums have left me disappointed. The woman can write her way around a song, but they seem to see saw between treacly pop fluff and just strange, yet boring.
There are glimpses of the brilliance I know she has, but nothing like this track off of “Whaler” called “I Need Nothing Else”.
”And when I cry the deepest hurting, cleans my soul, relieves my burden. In you I find a way to lose myself. Thrill me baby, I need nothing else”
Roisin Murphy has always frustrated me. I know she is brimming with talent, and it shows with her albums.
What I find frustrating is her tendency to put out this kooky image, as a cold self styled advertisement of her individuality.
She reminds me of Grace Jone's perfume in "Boomerang" called "Steel Vagina".
We have Bjork for that, and she has been doing it for YEARS, warmly!
Roisin can paint a complex musical landscape though and she has one of those voices that can truly be used as an instrument. So many different sounds come out of it, you wonder if she is human.
I will be getting her new album “Overpowered” as it is (upon listening on iTunes) sounding FLAWLESS. Here is “Primitive”
”I need to get you out of your cave man. I need to let you out of your cage and set you free. If tonight's the night, I'm gonna show you I ain't got no game plan”
Another cause of Frustration for me is my beloved Sinead O’Connor. This crazy lesbian priest has tried to do it all. She is very political, outspoken and brilliant. Yet musically she meanders around between un-listenable and genius. Her 2000 album “Faith and Courage” is one of my all time favourite albums. She sung about Jesus and God, which would usually puts me off, but she did so, so beautifully.
Intermixed with her new found faith were songs about the Irish Potato Famine and pure joyous love songs. If you have not gotten this album I urge you to seek it out.
Sinead at her best!
Here is the song that makes me smile and dance like a rock star. Back to the rocky Sinead, it is “Daddy I’m Fine”
”I stand up tall with my pride upright, and I feel real hot when the makeup's nice. I get sexy underneath them lights, like i wanna fuck every man in sight”
Please bear with me and try not to hate on me too much. Nelly Furtado totally sold out with “Loose”. It was uninspired with only moments of the brilliance she showed before. Her sophomore album “Folklore” was a masterpiece. It must have been frustrating to pour all your creative heart and soul into an album, only for it to flop upon release.
No wonder she called up Timberland for an easy hit album.
Folklore was an amazing album from brilliant orchestral start to church organ lullaby finish. To hear an artist who is more than a promiscuous girl, please buy this album.
The strongest thing on this album is the song writing, so assured and mature. The instrumentation is wonderful as well ( I think she used every instrument she could find). Hear “Childhood Dreams” on my box, and relax. I BEG YOU TOO!!!
” I am not used to being carried, or being able to carry a pretty song. I have been bruised by my many trails (sometimes my skin's so thick it's frail)
I just need to be ignored 'til I wake up to the beauty that is yours”
13 comments:
oh michael, you sound like a big ass hollywood producer saying there's only room for one ecentric artist...bjork ticks all the boxes so therefore we cant fill our cd shelves with any others. i say bring them on, thats what i miss about the eighties...it was the decade that we dared each other to be different, to illustrate our differences on our foreheads, but now days (gosh i sound like an old man) most people sound alike, lookalike, and think alike...and thats just the artist. go on Ms. murphy, and shame on you michael!
Kook bores me darling.
I do kind of agree with you Michael. Saw her live recently (and not the head banging show) and she was great, just very very cold. With her costumes and style she should have been warmer. She just seemed more interested in herself that connecting with the audience.
Then again some people shine on an album more. The album is fantastic.
p.s if my memory is correct moloko came out around 1995-97...bjork's visual representation of herself was only verging on freak at that moment...it was her music that stood her apart. you also should assume ms. murphy was working on her sound and image a few years before(which for the record moloko's first album surpasses bjorks 'post'- same time frame- as stunningly otherworld-like)besides you're right, grace jones was going 'crazy and weird' LONG before both of them. and since the sugarcubes bjork was all voice in the 80's and early nighties. the image started to develop after 'debut' and took off two albums later...xx
kook bores you?? is that all you have to say!?
Ax
do we expect kisses and hugs and patti labelle love from every entertainer..some are meant to be watched others adored, some are movies in the concert hall, others
actors on a stage. and both are valid.
Ax
Ohhh Andra!!! Get the ole claws out sweetie. Will it be hand bads at thirty paces? Kook has it's place, and can be done brililantly, but most of the time it comes across as manipulative. Kooky for Kooks sake.
It seems organic with Bjork, Tori Amos, and Grace Jones and even early Patti (those costumes...oh my!) For me personally, the image Roisin puts across seem uncomfortably planned. Where as her music is pure heaven. This may be the point, but I get put off watching her.
(Eds note: I love Nelly Furtado's "Folklore" but my word, I cannot watch her perform any of the songs from it.....kills the love when I see it)
FIGHT FIGHT!!!
I tink Anonymous has a woody for Roisin. At least they are being much nicer to you than that girl who loved Angelina!!
I hate to disagree but I found "Loose" to be a breath of fresh air, yes I know, it seems as a very by the numbers Timbaland album, but I believe it's his best work since the Missy Elliot days.
While it's true that absolutely everyone has worked with Timbaland, Furtado's sensitive lyrics and her flawless ear for orchestration and instrument layers make the man's production sound fresh!
Not even people like Bjork could get these sounds out of him and I mean if he's such a definitive recipe for success how come Madge's new music sound like crap?
P.S: I think "Folklore" is her best album as well.
You cannot be a recipe for success if you stretch yourself so thinly. Timbaland is out of ideas it seems. My problem with "Loose" is that I wanted more "Folklore".
Had loose sounded more like the track "All Good Things" and less like the usual Timberland production wheel I would have loved it.
What has been leaked of the new Madge album is nothing short of disappointing.
Perhaps they (Timbaland and MAdge) need to take a little creative break.
I notice there is no debate on Sophie or Sinead. I made myself watch a whole pile of Bjork, Roisin, Grace Jones and early Patti vids on You Tube (these comments bought back memories of some great artists)
Roisin does look uncomfortable, especially with the avant garde costumes. Check out the Bjork performances at the Royal Albert hall on you tube too. For such a genius she comes across like a shy little child on stage but it works. Vocally she is perfect live.
confirmed: 'A' has a woody for Ms. Murphy. hostess cookies is right i have no argument when it comes to Sinead or Sophie, i agree with alot of what michael says (most of the time!) but i have a different take on an artist albums. to me they are like paintings in a gallery- a collection of one artist within a certain framework of time- this goes for a single album as well a group of albums. if you enter a gallery of one artist work you don't always expect each picture to get under your skin (thats so rare) but as a whole the give you a broader more beautiful view of an artist. each album highlights new avenues and rooms in an artist life. so Sinead's Lion and Cobra album when listened with the Sean Nos album makes each one richer (great for those nights you're bored and alone and you want to lay in the dark and dive into someone else) that is why i have no problem with Nelly's album i expect her to always have a sense of integrity with her work...and that as she gets older each new album will make the tour through her particular gallery more interesting.
as for the 'uncomfortable' in kook comments...i take it that Ms. murphy has a vision of kook that she thinks represents her but she maybe uncomfortable in the execution of it...i'm sure you madonna fans could understand this (lord knows i do as a fan of madonna) everytime i see her with that damn guitar i think the same thing...she is so damn uncomfortable with that beast hanging around her neck...but she has something to prove- a vision she wishes to project..even if it dosnt always work...and it hasnt yet!
axx
A - the guitar comment. I agree whole heartedly, but at least she tries, How many artists as huge as M would admit to having singing lessons half way through her career, and then admit to guitar lessons.
Enough of the divine M though. Murphy is a truely talented artist, but I feel her 'image' takes away from her music.
For me at least
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