Cyndi Lauper Bring Ya To The Brink
A Review of New Dance Album from the Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun
May 30, 2008
Cyndi Lauper just wanted to have fun back in 1983 when she sprang on the music scene with a mix of punk, dance and balladry and a style and energy all her own. On her new album Bring Ya to the Brink, she recaptures her love of dance and proves that at 55, she still follows her own muse with exhilarating and dramatic results.
While many artists from Ladytron to The Ting Tings, have taken the 80’s sound and updated it, many of the artists who created that sound have been getting a resurgence in popularity.
All this fairs well for Lauper, the punky Brooklyn gal who in the 80’s dressed like a colorful dime-store diva and surprised the world with a string of number one hits and albums that quickly defined a generation. Best known for hits “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, and “True Colors”, her colors faded as subsequent albums failed to deliver on her popularized blend of punk, dance and pop, and Lauper settled into a more adult contemporary sound.
Living High and Mighty
On Bring Ya to the Brink, Lauper burns with youthful energy and a distinctly modern touch. Enlisting a team of dance floor moguls Max Martin (Robyn, Britney Spears), Basement Jaxx, Digital Dog, Peer Astrom, Scum-Frog and Rich Morel, these 14 songs are not only danceable, but fun and memorable. Unlike notable contemporaries, Lauper doesn’t try hard to remain relevant by dipping into the pools of the high and mighty. Instead, she bounces around dance styles and sounds completely new for her, with equal flare.
On album opener “High and Mighty” an acoustic guitar / disco romp, Lauper sums up her experiences in the straightforward lyric “if I had a dollar every time I tried, / I’d be living high and mighty”. This same carefree spirit carries “Into The Nightlife”, a full-on tour of the dancefloor “got this endless itch to ride” Lauper belts out as the mirror ball shines down on her. The party continues on “Rocking Chair” a Latin-tinged affair and “Echo” where she stoically looks to the dance floor “time to just be there / you go, go, go, go”.
Raging Storm
The party takes a bit of a dip on “Lyfe” but picks back up on “Same Ol’ Story”, where Lauper gives her lover the finger and heads off to the discotheque: “you’re back tryin’ to put me down, / like some simpleton you can use, yea, yea / well it’s the same ol’ ****ing story”. Easily one of the best dance tracks to emerge this year.
On “Let Me Down”, produced by Lauper and Kleerup, the groove slows down to a synth-led stroll through a wounded soul with ambitions to get to the city. “Give It Up” and “Set Your Heart” echo elements of 70’s disco while “Grab a Hold” borrows the bluesy buzz synth from Madonna’s “Material Girl” and builds to an inspiring slice of pure pop. Lauper hasn’t sounded this fresh since “She Bop”.
Rain On Me
A successful balladeer, many of Lauper’s more memorable tracks such as “All Through the Night” and “Time After Time” still get airplay today. Building on that model, she delivers “Rain On Me” one of her more introspective ballads to date with a melody that could bring Stalin to tears. “I am a lover in mid air / I think about it I don’t care / into the fire of despair / just like a train that goes nowhere / but you can rain on me”, she sings on this number one in-waiting.
The digital version of Bring Ya To The Brink also contains two bonus tracks, “Got Candy” and “Can’t Breathe”, as well as remixes of “Set Your Heart” and “Same Ol’ Story”.
Bring Ya to the Brink is a celebrated surprise that deserves to feature prominently on summer dance floors and any top ten lists of 2008.
Cyndi Lauper is currently on her True Colors Tour to raise funds for the Human Rights Commission and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
