Record Recipes #35
The audacity!
A selection of analog recommendations for your listening pleasure. Pulled from my personal collection. Today’s issue: Spandex and panache.
Pat Benetar - Crimes of Passion. I will simply not stand for the erasure of Pat Benetar’s cover of Wuthering Heights. As you all prepare for the smuttification of Emily Brontë’s literary masterpiece by listening to Kate Bush’s musical masterpiece, I simply ask that we hold space for the absolute vocal flex that was young Benetar summiting those high notes just two years after the original song rocked the UK charts. A massive pop voice backed by an undeniable rock band. Hell is for Children
Madonna - Madonna. This is the Madonna era I appreciate most. Italian eyebrows, Susan Seidelman cinema, early 1980’s New York City dance hall. These early hits: Borderline, Holiday, Lucky Star, arrived the same year Studio 54 closed due to tax evasion. Pop music had guitar parts from hair metal session players. Everything was platinum and nothing hurt. Burning Up
Cyndi Lauper - She’s So Unusual. A perfect debut, Lauper arrives fully formed with indelible instant classics (Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time) and a Prince cover to boot. Track 5 rocks everyone’s boat with an ode to female auto-eroticism. To top it all off, Lauper was 30 when this record dropped, bringing a fully formed frontal lobe and finely honed taste that one simply can’t expect from an adolescent bopper. Money Changes Everything
Keep listening.