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Rating: Cyndi Lauper is one of those precious historical relics of the Eighties that survive even without churning out the millions of copies sold in the golden years. A mix between the colorful gypsy of the American underground, the unruly quirky girl, and the not-so-much sex symbol youngster, Cyndi shared with the more fortunate Madonna the sparkle of a decade that these days has been reclaimed with terrifying ravenousness by the shaky mainstream, establishing a fake rivalry (rather stirred up by already gossiping and slanderous media) that never crossed two artistic and creative paths that were independent. Unlike the provocative Ciccone, Ms. Lauper did not aim so much at a transgressive, powerful, fierce, and semi-erotic image (with the exception of the hot lyrics of She Bop) in continual rise in the years to follow, but managed, at least until the end of the 80s, to maintain a casual and colorful look accompanied by sounds that unfortunately were not able to break through the rough music scene of the early Nineties. Thus, best-sellers like She's So Unusual and True Colors, evergreen classics that can boast hits of the caliber of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, True Colors, and Time After Time, milestones of an envied and enviable era, gave way to the premature collapse of A Night To Remember, the last burst on the charts with I Drove All Night and the dismal fall into the disastrous under-100 halls with subsequent albums, Hat Full of Stars and Sisters of Avalon in the forefront. Cyndi, having lost the positive response of the past, abandoned the gypsy frivolity of her debut, yet continued to produce albums and, above all, to opt for the alternative and underground context, temporarily detached from mass pop and, except for the grunge boom, far from the million-dollar peaks.
Sisters of Avalon is the second creative step of Lauper unfortunately thrown into the caustic darkness of the Nineties after the quiet Hat Full of Stars, the album of total separation from the eighties glories. Released in 1997, amidst the full bloom of electronics and related oddities, the album is a rich outpouring of sounds and inspirations, a multi-flavored work that inscribes in a handful of tracks the stylistic evolution of the 90s. The Cyndi Lauper of Sisters of Avalon, having left behind the synth-disco-new wave pentagram of her beginnings, aims at an artistic kaleidoscope of great impact, embracing in one go trip hop, mainstream pop, ambient, soft electronics, alternative rock (with even punk-grunge veins), ethnic-Arabesque sounds, smooth jazz and orchestral. The recipe, although once again lacking the support of the many fans now adrift, represents one of the happiest moments of "underground" pop in the Nineties, an authentic melting pot of a little bit of everything that does not unravel into composite aberrations and exaggerations.
The album starts with the title track Sister of Avalon, an eccentric ethnic-tribal composition that seems to reclaim the artist's gypsy garb, only to shock with the up-tempo electro-trip hop Arabesque Ballad of Cleo and Joe and play with punk fantasies in Love To Hate. The relaxed atmosphere proposed by the downtempo Fall Into Your Dreams and the filo-country ballad Hot Gets A Little Cold continues in the second part of the tracklist with the muffled jazz-chill out effusions of Say a Prayer, the ambient calmness of Searching and Mother. A fun and more "energetic" ending, on the other hand, with the funky-disco of Brimstone and Fire.
A compact and cohesive album, a work between pop and anti-pop, the will of a fallen star to continue shining in the firmament of the rejected survivors: this is the soul, the pulsating focus of Sisters of Avalon, forgotten by the charts but not by the connoisseurs of good music and serious, critical, and coherent filo-pop fans.
Cyndi Lauper, Sisters of Avalon
Sisters of Avalon - Ballad of Cleo and Joe - Fall into Your Dreams - You Don't Know - Love To Hate - Hot Gets a Little Cold - Unhook The Stars - Searching - Say a Prayer - Mother - Fearless - Brimstone and Fire - L
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Sisters of Avalon (04:20)
Felt someone calling me into the howling of the wind.
I heard the reflection of a sound echoing through my skin ...
And a distant drum rumbling under ground gently guides me on ...
Through my wild heart ...
Whispering to me the Sisters Of Avalon...
Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon...
She is awakening in dark swells and mystery.
Unbridled night mares powerful and running free.
You could still hear her cries reverberating through the trees...
For the trampled flowers, the daughters of Eve, the Sisters of Avalon...
Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon...
They brought her in in a new white dress...
But the stain left an ache on her mother's breast...
Now all that's left are the ghostly steps from a distant corridor...
And a distant drum rumbling under ground gently guides me on ...
Through my wild heart ...
Whispering to me the Sisters Of Avalon...
Sisters Of Avalon...
Come on sisters... Come on sister...
02 Ballad of Cleo & Joe (04:00)
Every day the clock kicks off the beat.
Little joe struggles just to get up on his feet.
Waits in his platforms for the right train to come.
Sipping his coffee another day has begun ...
Little joe got work for minimum wage.
Tries to get through another dead beat day.
At five o'clock he comes home to change,
Takes him many hours just to rearrange...
And he works his body just to be somebody.
There's a woman in the mirror looking like a dream.
And he works his body...
And he feels somebody...
And the working boy becomes a dancing queen.
Every night the dj kicks off the beat.
Little cleo's jumping just to get up on her feet.
Waits in her platforms for the right song to come.
Sipping her cocktail another night has begun.
And he works his body just to be somebody.
There's a woman in the mirror looking like a dream.
And he works his body...
And he feels somebody...
And the working boy becomes a dancing queen.
Every morning the clock kicks off the beat.
Little joe struggles just to get up on his feet.
Waits in his platforms for the right train to come...
04 You Don't Know (05:14)
You don't know where you belong
You should be more careful
As you follow blindly along ...
You just need to belong somehow.
Relying on rhetoric ...
Not well versed on topics ...
Any idea what you're talking about ?
Revisions of history
Fair well in some company
But don't shove that bullshit down my throat
You don't know where you belong ...
You should be more careful
As you follow blindly along ...
To find something to swear to ...
Till you don't know what's right from wrong
You just need to belong somehow.
Left suppresses right
Right suppresses left
So what's the left, and what's right ?
You're told what to wear,
You're told what to like
I'd be nice if you'd think for yourself sometime,
But you don't.
Now you don't know where you belong ...
You should be more careful
As you follow blindly along ...
Mix sheer hypocrisy with mediocrity
You'll play it safe every time -
So life turns up empty
And you're so dissatisfied
Who are you blaming this time ?
Don't you know ?
Você não sabe a que lugar pertence
Você deve ser mais cuidadoso
Do jeito cego que você segue o seu caminho
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
Baseando-se na retórica...
Sem tópicos bem versados...
Alguma idéia do que você está falando?
Revisões de história
Despedidas com uma companhia
Mas eu não enfio essa besteira para baixo da minha garganta
Você não sabe a que lugar pertence,
Você deve ser mais cuidadoso
Do jeito cego que você segue o seu caminho,
Para encontrar algo que possa jurar
Até você não sabe qual a diferença do certo e errado
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
A esquerda oprime a direita
A direita oprime a esquerda
Então, o que é a esquerda, e o que é certo?
Disseram-lhe o que vestir
Disseram-lhe o que gostar
Seria legal se você pensase em você mesmo alguma vez,
Mas você não pensa
Você não sabe a que lugar pertence
Você deve ser mais cuidadoso
Do jeito cego que você segue o seu caminho
Para encontrar algo que possa jurar
Até você não sabe qual a diferença do certo e errado
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
Misture a mediocridade com a pura hipocrisia
Você vai sempre brincar com isso seguramente --
Então a vida fica cheia
E você, tão insatisfeito
Quem você está culpando dessa vez?
Não sabe?
Você não sabe a que lugar pertence,
Você deve ser mais cuidadoso
Do jeito cego que você segue o seu caminho,
Para encontrar algo que possa jurar
Até você não sabe qual a diferença do certo e errado
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
Você precisa pertencer de alguma maneira
06 Hot Gets a Little Cold (03:37)
Heaven, You say it could be heaven ... But I don't really know ... Lovers come and go ... When hot gets a little cold. Infatuation is just the great anticipation Of starring in that picture show Let's wait until the credits roll ... When hot gets a little cold. I could get carried away but not anymore ... What was it I heard you say you love me 'cause I'm strong I hope that you're not wrong. Heaven, you say it could be heaven, Well I don't really know ... I'll try not to let it show When hot gets a little cold ... When hot gets a little cold ... When hot gets a little cold ...
10 Mother (04:44)
Over land and over sea
She reaches out to me
Weaving and threading the loom
From womb to womb
Slaves and merchants
Pilgrims and thieves
Felt her hand and charted skys
By following her moon
Mother ... Mother ... Mother ...
Some came and built with stone and bone
Some planted fields on promised land
And harvested their dreams,
Then disappeared
As generations lose their memory
I'll try and remind my heart ...
And hope that it will set me free
Mother ... Mother ... Mother ...
Condeming my true nature
I stood outside of myself ... outside of myself
Conditioning is what made me
Lose sight of myself ... lose sight of myself ...
Lose sight
Ravens cry out,
Tides pull in,
Somehow she replenishes ...
Giving birth again
Mother ... Mother ... Mother ...
11 Fearless (03:38)
Sometimes I'm afraid when you go
Sometimes I'm afraid when you come home
Underneath it all
I think I'm afraid when there's nothing wrong
But if I was fearless
Could I be your wreckless friend
And if I was helpless
Would you be the one comes rushing in
There's something that I never told
When I find myself slipping off
Of my pedestal
I'm a fierce believer afraid to fall
But if I was fearless...
Could I be your wreckless friend
And if I was helpless...
Would you be the one comes rushing in
Sometimes I'm afraid of the dark
I can't find the light in my heart
I can see my hand
Pushing away from you hard as I can
But if I was fearless...
Could I be your reckless friend
And if I was helpless...
Could you be the one comes rushing in
Sometimes I'm afraid when you go
12 Brimstone and Fire (03:35)
I met a woman at the laundry mat She left her sock in my dryer I met a woman in a yellow cap It said brimstone and fire I said is this luck ? With just a glance She smiled, and I thought, is this a sign ? From above or below ? ... Oh no ... Brimstone ... Brimstone and fire ... The next week at the cinema She pur her hand on my shoulder She almost kissed me walking home And I didn't even scold her Then I said where is this leading with just a heavy sigh I quickened my pace and she was following as if her heart would never tire Brimstone and fire, brimstone and fire ... Now we have dinner every Saturday I make spaghetti, she brings cake I make spaghetti with tomato sauce, Because that's all I can make And when she lights the candles I think, here we go ... But it's so pleasant after all And I say very low Don't forget to light the fire Brimstone and fire ... Brimstone and fire ... Brimstone and fire ...
13 Early Christmas Morning (04:09)
Listen to the children sing
Watch them dancing all 'round the Christmas tree ...
Waiting for the opening
Early Christmas morning ...
All around the world is sleeping
Little children there's no peeping
Wait and see what Santa's bringing
Early Christmas morning ...
Icicles and breakfast cakes ...
Friends and family we will celebrate
Sounds that joy and laughter make
Early Christmas morning ...
All around and far off places
Angels waken smiling faces
Wrapping us with love and graces
Early Christmas morning ...
Early Christmas morning ...
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Other reviews
By OPALTIDE
The CD focuses on the female world: it is inspired by Zimmer’s fantasy novel and co-produced with a woman, keyboardist Jan Pulsford, telling stories of women.
‘Ballad of Cleo and Joe’...is dedicated to a day laborer who transforms into a beautiful drag queen by night, a dedication Cyndi wanted to make to a part of her supporters.
