The over-produced female vocalist mor-pop to art-pop continuum of the 80s and sometimes early 90s, often but not necessarily from Canada

Lauren Christy perhaps the most pertinent and lolsy example of the above transition.

Imagine growing up listening to music like this and then thinking it was all downhill from there...

Haha check the YouTube comments on this stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puGEpGzk2hk

"I'll carry this song to my grave, and the girl I couldn't have. Her name was Catherine and she took my breath away."

"Haunting. What is more infectious: Mary's voice or her beauty?"

"I'll carry this song to my grave, and the girl I couldn't have. Her name was Catherine and she took my breath away."

this could be a lyric!

also laurie anderson released an entire album of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vmzpaq46nQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHEhL34zeHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcbNlMgr70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmjqCQsnt3I

Oh, wow, so much greatness. My version of this would also have at least something from Til Tuesday, Sarah Slean, Abra Moore, Rachael Sage, Sarah Harmer, Emm Gryner, Martina Sorbara, Tanita Tikaram, Tasmin Archer, Bic Runga, Julia Darling, Charlotte Martin, Melissa Ferrick, Over the Rhine, Eddi Reader, Nina Gordon, Dido, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Lisa Germano, Mia Doi Todd, Leah Andreone, Kathleen Edwards, Vanessa Carlton, Vienna Teng, Kate Miller-Heidke, Milla, Imogen Heap, Wendy & Lisa, the Corrs, Maria Mena and Lili Haydn. Just for starters.

A huge amount of what I first knew of the obscure realms of this music comes from the so-great Ecto mailing list, which was nominally the fan list for Happy Rhodes, but kind of became the secret community for everybody who loved somebody who sounded a little like Kate Bush but wasn't famous.

I still basically haven't gotten over how crushed I was when Jane Siberry got rid of her synthesizers.

See also Tori Amos' pre-solo band/album Y Kant Tori Read, and Pat Benatar's similarly glossy Seven the Hard Way, and a bunch of the less-well-known early Cyndi Lauper songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrh4FyRFZsY

^^^ dig that mid eighties 'power woman' wardrobe and posture

Heh. Was just about to look into some late 80's Anne Murrary to see if it would fit in here just before you posted that.

I find touted UK indie hopefuls Flowers almost unlistenable because the singer reminds me of this woman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9qGur8eTUg

And this is surely the last gasp/apotheosis of the genre?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqVQPq8zm8

(J-Sibs will always be cool in my books)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL7j8HCWWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rggBIc54B5Q

When I was about twelve or thirteen I had a tape of Sarah McLachlan on one side and Toni Childs on the other and at the time it was both the best thing ever and all I ever needed of this.

Heather Nova's Oyster is the direction this stuff should have went, massive and overproduced but somehow more dreamy.

fucking tremendous thread I gotta say, thanks everybody this is really cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSTJm05GDEA

don't know the album; was led to this due to her impeccable taste in remixers on this single: http://www.discogs.com/Laurel-MacDonald-Wingspan-EP/release/329773

Country: Canada

I don't even know if the Anne Murray song I posted is good, but it's stuck in my head.

Where does Sam Phillips (who I adore) fit in? And what does Robin Holcolmb sound like?

Heather Nova's Oyster is the direction this stuff should have went, massive and overproduced but somehow more dreamy.

― boxedjoy, Thursday, October 23, 2014 11:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Did you ever hear Glowstars, her first album? It's actually amazing and much more ~dreamy~, parts of it sound like they were produced by AR Kane.

I never did - I went forward to Sirens which I found to be too glossy and even more lyrically naff in its extreme earnestness - not sounding "massive", but more sleek and shiny and a bit sterile. The idea of AR Kane doing full-diva dreampop is too appealing though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX67eVvDLZo

^ only recently discovered this claire hamill video, absolutely hilarious performance from her

syd straw? katydids? am i miles away?

Boxedjoy, check this: Heather Nova - Shell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrrKV9JT7Y4

"Frontier":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SmdeGBOEVA

Ah no that's "Glow Stars", this is "Frontier":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVboVXPUJ1g

"perspectives of profundity"

I dunno what that bs is about.

I felt like a lot of the Danielle Brisebois record would fit in here, but I think maybe this is the only song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6VW0IGdZP8

it's a bit of a tangent but i think maybe amy grant's lead me on works in this continuum?

Perspectives of Profundity sounds like a title that Joni Mitchell thought of for one of her own curated comps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JGRpBDJyeQ

Would this fit here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4P-AGHIVKs

Not a lot of kate-bushisms here, but it's very heavy on the Fleetwood Mac wannabe side.

Love this thread. Was a big fan of Mae Moore's "Bohemia."

Also was Loreena McKennitt mentioned in this thread?

In Canada in the '80s, even the metal chicks were over-produced pop vocalists...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo8GsdyzEcY

I finally listened to that Heather Nova album and it is brilliant, really astonishing how much her output went right over a cliff and kept falling after it.

I'd still defend a good two thirds of the second album - "Heal" and "Island" are both beautiful.

But yes the first album is an unacknowledged masterpiece. You could imagine it having come out on 4AD and really blowing up amongst the kind of people into I dunno Lisa Germano and His Name Is Alive and etc.

Oyster is actually a better album than I remember it being, just from refreshing the tracklist in my head by skimming Wikipedia.

This has also helped me figure out exactly what the Emma Ruth Rundle album from last year has been reminding me of that I couldn't quite put my finger on initially.

i have never heard of Emma Ruth Rundle, would i like.

Now we're getting quite off-topic, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjzLtDFmk0

Hugo Largo must have really tanked not to have been mentioned yet.

I don't think of this band as "overproduced" but rather produced just right, 1987 (hope this ridiculously long url works):

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=AwrT6VrlUMRUSwsAqc8nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTB0c2puYm1xBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwM18x?p=miaou+did+she&tnr=21&vid=C5B80D5D9E7D76F28E99C5B80D5D9E7D76F28E99&l=225&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DUN.608020520324630804%26pid%3D15.1&sigi=11r0qg311&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvsIk7Lo0ooM&sigr=11bl2li2k&tt=b&tit=Miaow+~+Did+She&sigt=10fnkpaf5&back=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dmiaou%2Bdid%2Bshe%26ei%3DUTF-8%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla&sigb=12poatchk&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

No of course it didn't glug glug. Maiow doing "Did She".

Hugo Largo way too indie to belong in this thread - e.g. also why there's no actual 4AD in this thread.

Okay. Opal Records was distributed by Warner Brothers, but maybe it was still "indie" anyway.

I typo'd the name: it's Miaow, who failed to reach the public on Factory Records.

I think people might really love this stuff from Suse Millemann who was brought to light after she got included on a Numero comp a couple of years back ('Switched On Eugene'):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw2Bfo6_47Q
Suse Millemann - Patterns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liXrdZQ-Pcg
Suse Millemann - Walk In The Fire

^ listening to this stuff again and the closest point of comparison i can think of is Anna Domino who made some amazing tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8wTNLTb08I
Anna Domino - Caught

(i'm probably going too indie here aren't i?)