Cyndi Lauper
Sisters Of Avalon

THE REVIEW

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