Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

That sing-songy brainless piano plinking and sing-songy brainless melody coupled with YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU chorus is irritating beyond words.

I dunno Don, I think Ashlee is saying "we're both broken (damaged, not heartbroken), but you want someone unbroken (maybe because you can't handle your own brokenness). Whereas because I know that I'm broken I'm willing to accept that dealing with your brokenness is the only way I could make this arrangement work. You disagree, so this relationship isn't gonna work."

I crashed your pickup track
then I had to drive it back home
I was crying I was so scared
of what you would do
of what you would say
but you just started laughing
so I just started laughing along
saying it looks a little rough
but it runs o.k.
it looks a little rough
but it runs good anyway

we get a little further from perfection
each year on the road
I think it's called character
I think that's just the way it goes
but it's better to be dusty than polished
like some store window mannequin
won't you touch me where I'm rusty
let me stain your hands
touch me where I'm rusty, let me...

Not for long...enter The Lovemarks!

Saatchi & Saatchi is touting a manufactured girl band, created by the agency, as its latest ad weapon in the battle to reach young consumers.

Marketers will be able to hire the as-yet-unnamed group to promote their brands in their songs, their clothing and what they eat and drink.

(More at Poptimists). (xpost)

It's also the message threaded through I Am Me, is it not?

(2) I got Tori Amos's Scarlet's Walk (2002) from the library last Saturday; haven't had time to listen to it enough, but so far I like it far more than I'd expected. It seems far more pop than I remember her being (I used to cringe when people played her for me); is this because she's moved closer to pop, or because pop moved closer to her? I've not been taking in the lyrics, not because I've been avoiding them, just because she's been in the background and they haven't broken through. In any event, there are songs on here that aren't so different from the opening to "Rush," though unlike Aly & AJ she doesn't take them through to the teenrush of a wailing chorus.

So are the girlpoppers effecting a change in my taste?

I mean, Tori Amos???

I imagine it's both...a friend of mine made this same observation a week or so ago. She doesn't listen to the radio and dislikes most teen pop, and she thought that Tori Amos was going more "mainstream" in her some of her later albums (I wouldn't know, never really listened to Tori Amos all that much). I forget which album we were listening to. But then how many teen poppers cite Tori Amos as a major influence? Is the ratio the same as a high school drama dept's worth of aspiring singers?

Ashlee et. al. certainly still sound closer her first album Little Earthquakes, which I actually really could imagine sounding quite different after a heavy dose of current confessional teenpop. Some young aspiring girlpopper should definitely cover "Girl" from that album. But more generally I think we might see girlpoppers move toward that territory when they get to the third album stage and wanna "prove themselves creatively". Relevant factoid: Alanis Morrissette claimed in an interview that when she first heard Little Earthquakes she lay on her floor and cried all day.

"Take it back, take it all back now/The things I gave, like the taste of my kiss on your lips/I miss that now."

So by the third line she's taking back the taking back. She misses him. She wants him back. Once again, she's telling a story in abstractions, and once again it feels like a fullbodied story anyway. The chorus goes:

"All the things left undiscovered/Leave me waiting and left to wonder/I need you/Yeah I need you/Don't walk away."

What a profound way to lament a relationship: "All the things left undiscovered."

And then there's the ending, which is a whole new melody, sung in the same slow steps Tim described in "Say Goodbye," but many more - I wish I could convey her singing, the slow emphasis she gives everything, first a steady tread on her husky register:

"'Cause I can't fake/And I can't hate/But it's my heart/That's 'bout to break/You're all I need/I'm on my knees/Watch me bleed/Would you listen please"

Then repetitive little cries as her voice lifts.

"I give in/I breathe out/I want you/There's no doubt/I freak out/I'm left out/Without you/I'm without/I cross out/I can't doubt/I cry out/I reach out/Don't walk away, don't walk away, don't walk away, don't walk away"

A couple of interesting facts about this song: (1) Background vocals are credited to Ashlee Simpson alone; unlike the other tracks, no Kara or John augmenting her. (2) Songwriters are Ashlee Simpson and John Shanks. No Kara.

So, a question I'm kind of posing myself - who or what am I loving when I love Ashlee? - well, this doesn't necessarily eliminate Kara (who's at least as good-looking as Ashlee, and she's only 17 years younger than I rather than 31, and she says on her Myspace page she's single and straight)... This is an artistic creation here, this Ashlee, no matter how few or how many hands are in on it. But still, try and find an equal creation from Kara or John when Ashlee's not in the room.

I love it to death. It's like the Matrix guys doing Judas Preist with a refreshingly non-breathy girl voice on top.

Back to "Undiscovered": Good guitar playing from John, too. A gentle drone, a note shifts while the others stay put, but it's insistent, like the song itself.

I actually brought up the Ani lyric partly because I reckon I could make a mean compilation of earlier Ani stuff that would sound like an underproduced version of a lot of stuff here. Back on the covers tip, something like "Anyday" would make a great ballad for a girlpopper (I love this phrase Frank!) to do. In some ways becoming so obsessive about Ashlee has put me back in touch with my partially repressed fem-singer-songwriter adolescence.

Songwriting credits: Ashlee Simpson and John Shanks. Once again, no Kara.

Anyway. Johanna Stahley's *I'm Not Perfect* (she's from NYC, I think) is a better Sheryl Crow album than the last Sheryl Crow album. Sounds more like when Sheryl liked beats, back in her "Leaving Las Vegas" days. First song is called "My Big O (I Can)," and, judging from the album cover photo, may well be about the singer's Big O and the achieving of it thereof. Also, she imitates Steve Tyler in it. Another highlight is the one where Johanna falls for a bartender. And even the songs with sorta dreary words don't sound like they do.
-- xhuxk (xedd...), March 18th, 2006.
What makes Johanna Stanley's CD so boppy, I figured out, is how her bassist and drummer play full-on late '60s bubblegum soul beats in three straight songs in the middle -- "The Bartender Song," "What You're Doing," and "Misery," the latter of which doesn't sound miserable at all. Tapdancey alley-cat rhythm of "I'm Not Perfect" (a Rickie Lee or Norah Jones move?) and George Michael Diddleybeats of "Nothing I Would Change" are nice, too.
-- xhuxk (xedd...), March 18th, 2006.

(I, however, did not get the Switchfoot. I picked it up, looked at it, but could not make myself take it.)

I need an editor.

Q: 1. why are you so spectacular? 2. can you buy a private jet and save me from florida? I think the elderly people are coming to get me.

A: 1.) i took classes from lindsay lohan. but they involved drugs and drinking, so I failed. 2.) if I had a hammer, i'd hammer in the morning, i'd hammer in the eve'nin, all over this land.

Q: Are you excited about turning 17 this year?

A: i'm more excited about not turning 16.

Q: Where do you get the inspiration to be a song-writer and by being an artist (design)?

A: i dont get inspiration. I dont really know why I write about certain things, or why I dont write about certain things. I dont really "write" about anything. its all pish posh.

Q: So first of all i would like to ask. will you come to my house and disco with me and my brother in the nude? Secondly. being serious and all. WHEN. and i mean it. are you my dear, going to come to england.

A: I was in England yesterday! didnt you know? I was dressed as ringo star and I yelled things like "NAY NAY NAY"

Q: will you sing happy birthday to me on friday? i'll be 19.

A: happy birthday Mr.president.

Q: Okay. i've got three questions. 1. do you have any pets? If so, what are there and what are their names? 2. Have you ever watched Veronica Mars? If not, you should. 3. Have you ever traveled overseas? if so, whats your fave place you've been and why? p.s. Do you love it?

A: (uno) yes. simon's dawgs. and unicorn. (something) i lost my remote (tres) i was riding on the mayflower, when I thought I spotted some land.

brie!!!!!!!! will you come and chill with captain nicnic in hard rock cafe london and bathe in baked beans? you know you wanna

A: YES YES YES.

Q: what is your fav. sport and why??

A: is that a trick question?

Q: have you ever wondered what your life would be like without the music, the movies, and the fans?

A: yes. and then I remember that I would live the same life.

Q: 1. What is the best Bob Dylan CD? 2. Have you seen Transamerica? 3. Do you think Reese Witherspoon should have got best actress?

A: 1.) my favorite is Highway 61 revisted. but they are all amazing. 2.) nope. 3.) i thought she did win? am i going out of my mind? I saw walk the line the day it came out, at midnight. LOVE IT.

Q: yes, she did win...my question is do you think she deserved it or should someone else have got it. =]

Q: what is ur biggest wish??? :)

A: to be a character at disneyland. mostly Ariel.

Q: if you could live in any decade which decade would you choose?

A: SIMPLE. the 60s. no doubt.

Q: Do you remember going to a school called Pioneer Middle in South Florida to talk about you're movie Hoot (April 3rd)?

A: PIONEER MIDDLE SCHOOL GIVES A HOOT. i hope cookies and cream/salt and pepper have been feed lots of cheetos and crickets.

Q: Where'd you get your networking skills?

A: from many years of working in the netting industry.

Q: Do you want to go see the musical Wicked with me.

A: can I be in the musical?

Q: What event from your life would make the best cartoon scene? Pirates: cool or overrated?

A: once I chased a road runner. i tried to drop an anvil on her head. but it fell on me instead. i think that would work great as a cartoon. the best part was that I was dressed as a coyote! how random right?! right. pirates are overreated. I AM THE WARRIOR.

Q: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? Why is the sky blue?

A: those are highly controversial question. mostly ones I cannot answer. but I will say this. "is it safe to say C'mon C'mon? was it right to leave? c'mon c'mon. will I ever learn? c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon"

Q: you were in my dream. i'm hungry. lets go get pizza.

A: I have a question. I JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH YOU AND NOT ONCE DID YOU MENTION THAT I WAS IN YOUR DREAM. what the frick. that damned lip ring is giving you brain damage.

Q: do you like mooses? that is a weird word. mooses.

A: i once owned a bear that wore a dragon costume, named moose. so. to answer your question. i hope mooses suck.

Q: would you eat a chocolate covered hot dog if someone offered it to you?

A: depends. what kind of dog? i couldnt eat a whole saint bernard. maybe a baby poodle. the white ones. with milk chocolate? that wouldnt be so bad.

Q: What do you think about imaginary teddybears?
-You want one?
-Do you think im crazy, or just a really cool person with an imaginary teddybear called Hans?
Take your time Brie.
Those are some tough questions.

A: --- they make me say "free all night" ---i dont ---well. can you make pancakes? waffles? if the answer is yes. then yes.

Q: i got a job at the gun club pulling traps. it just kind of happened. i dont even know what i'll be doing. AHHHH I'VE NEVER EVEN HELD A GUN IN MY LIFE! but i hear you get good tips...should i stick with it? hahaha this is like an advice column...

A: YES. BECAUSE YOU ARE THE WARRIOR. listen to the following songs, they will be the soundtrack to your life: slippery people by talking heads, warrior by yeah yeah yeahs, knockin' on heavens door by BOB DYLAN and....soldier by destinys child:)

Q: How long does it take you to come up with all the banter you churn out? I mean seriously, it has to be the most random irrelevant stuff I've ever read. I guess though that is the mystery that is Brie Larson....

A: i bought the Do-it-yourself DVD.

Q: is your concert on friday free?

A: well. its 5 invisible dollars. so I guess you could say that.

Q: should my mum let me get my lip pierced?

A: YES. and it should be in the shape of the letter B.

Q: Do You Like Panic! at the disco? and do you think billie joe armstrong is attractive?

A: i would say no, but only because when I hear their music or just their name...I get this sudden urge to break my left arm and stick a fork in my eye? billie joe armstrong is in green day. your answer is right there.

Q: What does celestial mean?

A: read a book. maybe its in there.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/yolandat

1. yolanda thomas (another post-divinyls cdbaby aussie hard-living gurl who stops after only *eight* songs and who is almost as good as leanne kingwell in her horniest songs "lock up your sons" and "going down" where she is gone down on and maybe "oh yes", all of which make her two sappier songs about california more bearable).

2. come to think of it, "oh yes" probably has a wee bit too much melissa etheridge in it for its own good, and the gloria-estefan-via-shakira move "perception of deception" is probably more fun. vibratophobes, caveat emptor. but "lock up your sons" and "going down" are truly rockin' and sexy and really crack me up:

- slik *slik* (1976, on arista records, and totally fucking mysterious. who the hell are these guys? they name one song "the kid's a punk" but at best they only look like punks in the *lords of flatbush*/dion and the belmonts sense, except they're all wearing different baseball jerseys on the cover. and really short greasy hair. you know they're tough guys 'cause the one with the springsteen/deniro/pacino look has a toothpick in his mouth and another one is punching his left palm with his right fist. they cover both "when will i be loved" by the everly brothers and "bom bom" by exuma, the latter of which i'm pretty sure was also covered by the jimmy castor bunch, and they also do a song called "do it again" credited to midge ure, though ultravox didn't put out their first album until 1977 I think. also, there's a song called "dancerama." so maybe they're disco? i have no idea, not yet.)
-- xhuxk (xhux...), April 23rd, 2006.

http://alexgitlin.com/npp/slik.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/slik

Watching the video to Mono, which i think is the key to all this, there is a scene, with courtney in a grocery store, being chased by cops and photogs, she stops, lifts her skirts, and has 3 children come out from under, the girls lift their skirts, and there is three more--that set lifts there skirts, and emerge with chain saws...the girls in chain saws ravage the suburbs.

i dont need to do the freudian work for you (the whole video is pretty transparent) but i think that 6 or so years ago, courtney was arguing that she would give birth to a generation of kids who will kill their parents--and one could make the arguement that Ashlee, etc are those kids.

whether courntey would allow that is up for debate ofcourse--but the video is pretty clear on the sticky politics of progeny.

(you can stream it on her site)

You can also go to http://www.cdplanet.no, which is a norwegian website but there's a flag on the top left of the page that you can click to view the Webpage in English (the album costs 18.50 in U.S. dollars, but I'll bet there's a significant handling and shipping charge [I didn't check]).

Metal Mike Saunders, via email today:

> i haven't even heard the Dhani side(s) (single or anything else) post A-Teens. but during all of year 2005 i had literally BOXES of 3/$1 (especially) and 50 cent and dollar bin vinyl albums 60's/70's (mostly) to dredge thorugh here at home.

i had a small-lightburlb-turns-on moment of clarity the other day...and realized that when you break down the last 30 calendar years into decades as --

1975 - 85
1985 - 95
1995 - 05

then i can cue up a list of "very favorite pop act of each 10 years (decade) of the last 30 years" as a uninterrupted Swedish Pop head of class reign --

ABBA
Roxette
A*Teens

the 1995 Roxette (foreign issue only) singles comp GREATEST HITS / GET TO THE CHORUS is just unbelievable....i have to pick up a used CD of it on Ebay. i stumbled across a Korean cassette in a local thrift store lasst year...

I guess that indicates i'll be digging up the post-A*Teens sides in, i dunno, year 2015?

the footage in APA's mtv reality show looked like it was just a Dr Luke thing (the strong single/tune), but you know Max Martin...a million dollars can't get him in front of a camera or an american interviewer. smart guy.

does any fanboard know exactly what Max Martin actually did on Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" mega-hit comback monster except -- obviously -- completely fix (rerecord) the rhythm track. and either co-write or do similar major fix-it work on the tune? BJ are total dicks about giving (signing over any) outside production credits...bon jon's such a musical genius y'know...like that godawful current fake-o "country" version (for CMT and country radio) of their (current) hack single ("They Say You Can't Go Home")...good lord what an affront to intelligent/clever pop or pop/country music. if i had the funds i'd have Miranda Lambert burn HIS fuckin house down. it's not pretty when pretty boys start getting old and think, "oh, it's time to start cutting country-crossover versions." fuckin' tool. he should roadie for Ashley Parker Angel!

(Gottwald could also sue himself over the Veronicas' "Everything I'm Not," which runs very close to Kelly Clarkson's "Behind These Hazel Eyes." But "Everything I'm Not" works fine as a Veronicas track, has a Veronicas character, doesn't seem superfluous in relation to the Kelly.)

My favorite song on the Pink is "I Got Money Now," which in feel if not in lyrics reminds me of "Dear Diary," my favorite Pink track ever. Same low singsong that feels prayerful and sorrowful. Produced and co-written by Mike Elizondo; doesn't sound anywhere near to Shanks or Martin.

All Pink albums are mixed in style and mixed-up in ideas. This is no different. As pure pleasure sound, it's got a lot to like, but it feels less strong in itself than Missundaztood had. Less Pink, for better or worse. Or so it seems so far.

Last year, when I first tried to describe "Since U Been Gone" to Chuck - I don't think I'd known yet it was a Maratone production - I told him that it was "Max Martin–style Bon Jovi, like "It's My Life."

>oh, i definitely had "Just Want You To Know" at either #2 or #3 on my 2006 Village Voice singles ballot...depending on whether Crazy Frog was #3 or #2. no way i was going to let the Year Of The Frog slip by without it going at least Top 3.

same D-Luke #1 as half of the known pop world, Behind These Hazel Eyes.

can't remember what the hell else i liked in 2006 on singles...a couple of the hilary duff singles...i think i had to scrape and throw Miranda Lambert and Hope Partlow in just to fill it up. no way would they be Top 10 for me in a strong pop year. OH -- greenday's "Holiday" since it was a great rock song w/good protest-lyric and the old 1994 gd giant-wall of-guitars billion seller production style. my least favorite GD producton style (even compared to the $500 budget debut album 1990) but what the hell. bill has always been the lennon/mccartney surrogate of our era so ya know the guy has realllly worked hard being Angus, Johnny Ramone, AND a sorta cut rate Brian Wilson of guitar rock (as in, songwriting career arc although he probably thinks of it more like a Kinks thing from what the locals tell me), all at the same time soo. still not as good a tune as Crazy Frog though.

=#4= well - with the VV music section apparently kaput to hell, i figure serious rock writers will start doing what i've been the last couple years....randomly posting their serious "rock crit thoughts" into other music fans' myspace.com Comments columns a couple times a week, by random number table method. i mostly have to just deal with the 100-200 "add me" requests (per week), and answering endless random questions (from moronic to generic to record-collector-arcane) in the In Box mail...but yea, a couple times a week something pops out that's more than just the usual swapping-of-one-sentence-smartass-comments (between the same Comment boxes). here's a couple from this past (weekend) as example...(check the comments side)...yea...pretty deep stuff ha ha hahaha ha. hey, what the hell, "underground" was a pretty cool idea for about 20 seconds back in fall 1967. -- anyway here's the lay of the land for us rock "critics" year 2006...this is what's left, guys --

http://www.myspace.com/killyridols69
http://www.myspace.com/guttergauntgangster
oh and this guy (musician) i know in LA who made such a dumbass comment into my page's recent "heavy metal" blog/journal post that i had to lecture him for about a half hour in print, or at least eight entire column inches of space ----
http://www.myspace.com/gainsbarre

yep...."rock criticism" as memo-pad notes ha ha. would the scholars call that "post-modern reductionism?"

imagine if the Beatles had had a "myspace" back in Dec 1960 when they'd just got back from the first Hamburg trip (the utter fluky providence of its having happened at all in the first place being the happenstance (musically) that completely set the fuse for pop music getting completely turned on its head when the Beatles nuked the whole UK music scene with "Please Please Me" in jan 1963)...yea...that've been cool. imagine archived-forever comments from all the german hookers and neer-do-wells the Beats had hung with (beyond the obvious Astrid and Klaus fashion crew).... someday poor biographers will have to troll through 10's (literally) of thousands of comments on some unknown (now) band's page that winds up (later) being a 5xPlatinum band in year 2009....

yea, me and two other Skye fans from the "punk band" world (drummer Clay from well known band Clorox Girls in Portland one of them, and frontman Johnny Jewel from Denver, now Portland the other ) were among the first 100 names noticing/asking for "adds" onto Skye's page when it went up its first month ages ago! and yea we left a goodly handful apiece of funny comments into the photos over the 6 months before the page became (now) pretty sprawling. (and most old photos disappeared eventually). if you ever send out a cheap xmas or birthday donation to bubblebrainy's Bolton PO Box, she enjoys getting things in pizza boxes. (she is still big on hello kitty or barbie related thrift store togs, and oh yeah, music).

i still stick to the idea of Skyster being an "inverted Lou Reed" (60's) for our time... your perfectly self-conceived "cult artist" and musical-contrarian (per rules) who is also capable of writing a giant hit song. at least if you consider "Sweet Jane" to be a pop hit in some universe if, like Elektra and "Light My Fire," some label guy had taken a razor blame and sliced the damn thing into tidier shape (and had had competitive production values, say on a 1970 Badfinger level).

i wonder if she'll ever write a song about...um...being a Canadian. hey y'know, i recall "American Woman" was a pretty good sized hit as canuck-perspective comment. so it's been done at least a couple times before.

I'm a huge Roxette fan. I like Joyride better than Look Sharp, but "The Look" (on the latter) is razor sharp and so so sexy. But those are the only two albums I'm familiar with. Is it worth getting the Get To The Chorus thing? Marie Fredriksson had brain surgery a few years back, but I believe she's in the clear. Always loved her androgynous fashion sense.

This single is so underrated, it's at least as good as "Since U Been Gone".

"yea, the Ashley Parker Angel reality show had two illuminating short segments...the one where LZ-boy-couch snoozers the Matrix were hacking out a pay-us-then-we'll-write-once-the-check-clears paint by numbers hack song...and then the near-awesome Dr. Luke in action as a contrast. O-town Ash did the Dr. Luke song/single with a live band on TRL tuesday and whoa, it rocked like fuckall. (low-tech band with no unified look, young-ish guys like him and no other pretty boys...one guitarist was a short runt with a goofball mohawk). as "cool song, better live than the record" moments go it was a pretty sublime moment of pop crossing into rock."

"So, in the random 5-CD changer this morning..., Whenever I thought I was hearing a Reckless Kelly track really jump out at me, turned out it was by Switchfoot, who are not remotely country, as far as I can tell, but somehow *feel* country to me; I could actually imagine hearing them on CMT, though really their album is either the best Nickelback album ever or the best U2 album I've heard since *Under a Blood Red Sky.* Probably the latter. So I dunno where the country *feel* of it is coming from - some distant root in Irish folk melodies via U2 maybe? I dunno.."

Upthread (circa March 27) I talked about Kaci Brown, who wanted to be a country singer but was signed by Interscope who wouldn't let her be one and put her on the road with the Backstreet Boys instead. Anyway, I wound up liking her 2005 *Instigator* album way more than I expected to. It's post-Destiny's/Britney/etc teenpop r&b with lots of non-word syl;ables from Kaci's mouth and an extraordinary amount of dub space in David Sonenberg and William Derella's production; Best track is probably "Body Language," which does the middle-eastern/bhangra thing and adds rock guitar and where Kaci lists all the languages she doesn't speak. Then probably "Instigator" (where she'll steal your boyfiend and the waiter too), "Cadillac Hotel" (Nelly Furtado-style reggae that somehow reminds me of the Tamlins' version of "Baltimore" by Randy Newman, maybe because it mentions seagulls), and "My Baby" (Teddy's-jam new jack swinging elecrofunk rhythm workout). Third tier I guess "The Waltz" (which I may well be underrating - slow simmer seduction brought to a boil, and literally turning into classical waltz music at the end), "SOS" (pretty dub pop for being stranded on the desert island in the lyrics), "Like Em Like That" (la la la la la la la). Worth seeking out - -when I bought my $2 copy in Princeton, it was one of a few there.

Also great on that '76 Slick LP (now playing in the background): "Dancerama," funked-up pop disco segueing out of "Bom Bom"'s great post-Santana proto-worldbeat disco metal.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/staceyevans

stacey evans, *a slender thread*, cdbaby californina pop-metal singer-songwriter rock; i definitely like some of it (especially "rollercoaster", absolute glam-metal roxette with a chorus about how a guy's moving too fast for her), and i kind of like the guitar sound (chunky and even sometimes boogiefied -- "a slender thread", which has a cabaret croon melody possibly ripped from "creep" by radiohead, ends with a pretty nifty guitar solo -- but often bordering on early psychedelic pop-rock, like i dunno, the beatles maybe?), and i like the europop undercurrent (e.g. vixen via abba in "letting them keep you") that courses through a lot of this. but soemething about the whole thing still screams "sincere and confessional folkie", which makes me wary. her voice is fine, i guess -- not as sandpaper as alanis or melissa etheridge, tougher than sheryl crow i guess but *probably* with less personality than at least two of those three, i'm not sure yet; maybe the personality will kick in later. plus the songs tend to get lost a lot, at least on first listen (maybe they'll kick in later too), and outwear their welcomes: best song is the shortest, and at 3:50 it's not that short. "machine" seems to want to sound like a machine, keeps going into these electro-rock parts and a robotic riff that reminds me of sly fox's "let's go all the way" of all things, but its melody is like "i am woman" crossed with benatar's "invincible" (maybe just because she keeps saying "invincible"?) crossed with some (i think) '80s new wave classic i can't put my finger on. last couple tracks seem to probably be the trippiest, but the trippiness is always balanced with commercial pop, which is a good thing. named as influences on her cdbaby page: bee gees, abba, fleetwood mac, eagles, def leppard, journey, electric light orchestra, olivia newton-john, ann wilson, karen carpenter. so, i dunno. i get the idea there might be interesting stuff going on here, but i need more time with it.

(she apparently has plenty of super-pro sidemen in her band - guys who work with elton john, rod stewart, and ray manzarek, for instance)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), February 24th, 2006.