Cyndi Lauper At Last 2003

Cyndi Lauper's solo career started with the one-two punch of She's So Unusual 1983 and True Colors 1986, both of which charted top ten, had multiple hit singles, and sold millions. Her third, A Night To Remember 1989 had her rocking harder and sold less well, even though it contained her last top ten single. Her next two recordings received critical praise but disappointing sales. So it was time for a covers record.

Ostensibly her jazz album, the record is a mix of jazz, standards, and pop and soul songs from the fifties and sixties. Lauper has the pipes to do anything, and her vocals are the star of the show. Some arrangements are straight covers, but most songs receive unique arrangements or significant tempo variations from their originals. Russ Titelman produced with Lauper, and the record has all the hallmarks of a highly professional production.

The title track kicks things off, and it is an instrumentally spare, relatively slow tempo version of the Etta James classic. Lauper sings the daylights out of it. That is followed by a slow, delicate Walk On By with small combo accompaniment, and again Lauper digs deep into the emotional core of the song. After two slow ones, Stay is presented in upbeat Latin mode, with Shiela E percussion and a horn section. It's hot, and fun. La Vie En Rose follows, and while it can't make you forget Edith Piaf, the slow, spare version here works fine. That is followed by another slow one, the beautiful Unchained Melody. There are a million versions of this song, and this is one of the good ones. If You Go Away is presented in a jazzy arrangement, and again Lauper invests herself in the lyric. 

About this time, the record could use some energy, and Stevie Wonder's (and Aretha Franklin's) Until You Come Back To Me has a backbeat and Stevie himself plays harmonica. The jazz standard My Baby Just Cares For Me swings nicely with electric keys from Steve Gaboury and a casual feel from Lauper. Next is a duet with Tony Bennett on Makin' Whoopie, and while it doesn't set a new standard, it's good. The slow returns with a smoldering version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, closer to Nina Simone's version than the Animals'. A super slow, super spare version of Smokey Robinson's You've Really Got A Hold On Me seems like an odd choice for the song, and could have added some pace to the record with a more upbeat version. Hymn To Love is an Edith Piaf song that continues the slow pace of the record, but it is a lovely song. On The Sunny Side Of The Street closes the show with a bang, a needed shot of adrenaline, and a good job on the old chestnut.

So the record could use a few less languid versions. With thirteen songs, only four get upbeat treatments. That is not to say that these slow versions don't work, most of them do. Cyndi Lauper sings everything from the heart, and really, it's a nice showcase for her impressive voice.

She wouldn't chart this high again until her next two covers records, Memphis Blues 2010 and Detour 2016 (country covers). In 2012 she wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which she won a Grammy in 2014 and a Tony in 2013. She stays in the public eye through tours, activism and guest spots, and she's opening for Rod Stewart on a nine date tour of Australia right now.

Jimmy Buffett A1A 1974

I know, Jimmy Buffett, really? These days Buffett runs his very own nostalgia empire, and he has done quite well for himself with tours, books, merchandising, recordings both studio and live, and Margaritaville properties. His net worth is estimated at 500 million. I was a fan for many years, and I still like some of his work. I bought most of his records from 1973-1985 (12 of them), and I own his 1992 four-CD box set Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads, which is pretty well curated with the hits and album tracks most anyone would ever need. At 76, he's still at it these days, and his records still chart pretty high. His good time beach bum message is still popular, and he teamed up with country stars for some of his relatively recent hits.

The record that got me hooked was his 1974 effort A1A. Named after Florida's eastern beach access road, it was the third of the four recordings in his Don Gant produced, Key West inspired era of early, fairly modest, success (All four are worth hearing even if imperfect). Two records later would come Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude 1977, produced by Norbert Putnam and including the hit Margaritaville, and from there Buffett's recording and touring career skyrocketed, especially his live tours. Who doesn't like a good party?

A1A isn't perfect, but it comes mighty close, and it is definitely his early highlight. The album opens with Makin' Music For Money, a cute country number that eschews capitalism back when Buffett could actually mean it. Door Number Three is a funny novelty song about Let's Make A Deal. Dallas is an upbeat country tune with a catchy chorus and pedal steel guitar break. Presents To Send You, Stories We Could Tell, and Life Is Just A Tire Swing all show off Buffett's way with a sentimental lyric and his penchant for the country/Caribbean sound he was perfecting. 

Side two is my favorite Jimmy Buffett experience. His classic A Pirate Looks At Forty opens the side, and it is a great tune about a life style that disappeared two hundred years before the singer wants to live it. It is a great song, and stayed in rotation at his live shows for many years. Migration is a quick jaunt of a country ode to the keys, with a melancholy, hook-filled chorus. Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season is the perfect beach bum treatise, and one of Buffett's classic Key West numbers, and yet another fine chorus. Nautical Wheelers is a country waltz that expresses his love of sailing as well as any of his songs that cover the topic. The album closes with Tin Cup Chalice, and if any song encapsulated a record perfectly, this is it. Images of the beach, the sky, the ocean, of "shrimp boats tied up to the piling", it's another great ballad from his pen.

Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude kicked off a series of pretty solid Buffett records, and there were at least two excellent songs on everything through Last Mango In Paris 1985. That's when I pretty much stopped listening, so I can't tell you about his last 14 or so records. Of the ones before 1986, I'd say the strongest records with the most good material would be Volcano 1979, Coconut Telegraph 1981, and One Particular Harbour 1983.

Calexico Hot Rail 2000

In more recent years Calexico records have been built on songs mostly, incorporating their southwestern and Spanish influences into a style all their own. Their early work was more experimental, and may be too much noodling around for some listeners. Hot Rail, their fourth LP, is clearly in that early experimental mode, but it also includes plenty to enjoy of their developing style.

The record opens with a bang on the instrumental El Picador. In service to their love of all things Ennio Morricone, it features fine guitar and trumpets, and sounds like a theme from a Spanish movie. Ballad of Cable Hogue folllows, with twangy guitar, shuffle beat, guest female vocals, and a strong melody. The short spacey interlude of Ritual Road Map gives way to the airy Fade. Slowly developing from the whispered vocals of the atmospheric start to the loud drums/guitar/cornet cacophony ending, it deserves the almost eight minutes it fills. Untitled III is a spacey, ambient drum and accordion piece. Sonic Wind has more breathy vocals, vibes and drums that builds to a nice shuffle beat. Muleta ends side one with Spanish melancholy imbued with fine lead guitar courtesy of Nick Luca as well as tasty violin and trumpets.

The drum and bass groove of Mid-Town opens side two, and evolves into a drum roll with spare guitar overlay. Service And Repair has Joey Burns singing a strong melody, and features quest pedal steel guitar. Untiltled II is another spacey interlude, this time with little to redeem it. Drenched features more nice Luca guitar work and too quiet vocals, but you can hear their future work forming. The percussion and noise interlude of 16 Track Scratch follows, and then it is on to Tres Avisos, a solid southwestern melancholy instrumental ala Morricone again, with violin and trumpets bringing the big Spanish vibe. The title track comes last, and it is more spacey guitar and loops.

The best songs feature additional musicians assisting John Convertino and Joey Burns to realize their vision. The four songs with trumpets and violin, as well as Nick Luca's lead guitar are the most developed and interesting. The songs where Convertino and Burns run the show are (mostly) interesting dalliances, but the band will make better records when they write more songs and avoid the experimentation. Later records have Burns developing more confidence in his voice, and both of them developing as songwriters. The pivot of their career, when they became the great band they are today (while still a bit experimental), is 2003's Feast Of Wire. Anything from 2003 and after is worth a recommendation. One thing you can get from any or all Calexico records, including this one, is that John Convertino is a brilliant, world class drummer.