Siobhan Fahey should not be a pop star. Hell, she also shouldn’t be a rock star, song writer, trendsetter, or anything for that matter which is presented or sold to the public. On paper this makes good sense. Reedy, thin voice? Check. Songs full of bitterness and bile? Check. Prolific career? Not so much. Public Interest? Meh. Strong, hook laden, self penned songs? Sometimes. Yet for some reason, her personae endures…
In fact, the thing about Siobhan is how much she gets right when nothing, no, NOTHING, in her post-banana-fana-fo-fana career has come across as easy. Shakespears Sister started off with a thud of an album, Sacred Heart, yet radio managed to pull from it hit singles Heroine and You’re History. Their sophomore album, Hormonally Yours, launched the band into the stratosphere (including America) with hit single Stay. And while the song (and album) holds up well 17 years later, how many people know what she’s been up to lately?
For a while she was hocking songs on the internet. Then the third album from 1997 which never surfaced, surfaced almost ten years later. It was interesting, but not necessarily good. It had a point, but a decade later it wasn’t as vital as it could have been had it dropped immediately after Siobhan decided to hand her other bandmate, Marcella Detroit, her walking papers. Obviously, the music suffered, since one of the more interesting characteristics of Shakespears Sister’s vocals was always the hi/low vocal harmonies. Without Marcy to lift the songs, the darkness of Siobhan’s voice and subject matter created something of a downer.
And don’t even get me started on the website. www.Siobhanfahey.com, while beautifully executed, was too much to deal with to try and obtain Siobhan’s songs. There was a subscription service, then it disappeared, then there was an online store…at this point, she was going solo, and a radical shift in music followed, in which Siobhan re-cast herself as the older, jaded sister to Kylie. Bitter Pill in it’s original form was a wonderful contrast to Kylie’s Can’t Get you Out of my Head. Several other electro ditties were released and well received. Which is why Shakespears Sister’s new CD, Songs From the Red Room is such a WTF musical moment.
Most of the songs have presented themselves over the last 6 years in different incarnations. And to scrub off all of their electro sheen and release them under a different name, makes me think that Siobhan doesn’t really have her head in the game. In fact, many fans may feel jipped to have to pay money to obtain old new songs and to have them in cd quality with a booklet. And at this point, let’s just say that ardent fans are pretty much all Siobhan has. However, delve into the disc, and there’s talent here. There’s good good stuff. Pulsatron will never go out of style…even if the guitars have been amped up. How can anyone deny a song with such a rollicking beat that involves a trip to the sex boutique? A cover of Hot Room is a difficult listen, yet worth the effort as it pays off with repeated listens. The pulsating beat and synth strings pull the whole thing together and harken back to some of Shakespears Sister’s strongest work. Current single It’s a Trip has a great I Feel Love underground Disco pulse to it, and is the most toe tappingly accessible song on the collection. It should also be noted that itunes bonus track Someone Elses Girl is a highlight and should be sought out.
Bitter Pill, however, is a ginormous disappointment compared to the original version. The new arrangement, which is all fuzzy guitars, doesn’t really suit the lyrics. And having lived with the electro perfection of the original for a long long time, it’s a low point on the disc. This song was not meant to rock; it was meant to dance…Elsewhere a duet with Terry Hall proves to be filler and You’re Not Yourself doesn’t really go anywhere.
Sifting through this collection, as good as it is, I really wish there was a way to make it better. The vocals are competent, and confidant. Siobhan’s got nothing to prove, and the best songs here sound as vital amidst today’s pop music as they did five years ago. The bitterness in her delivery has diminished, making her sound less detached and otherworldly and there’s even a hint of vulnerability (see A Loaded Gun). Here’s hoping the next CD, whether released as a solo artist, Shakespears Sister, or some mail-order internet subscription based thing, takes Siobhan’s music back to where it succeeded the most: the dancefloor. And let’s also hope that Siobhan’s fans aren’t ten years older when it happens.
Bananarama has always represented this sort of invisible line I crossed when I was 12 years old. Having just been given my first CD player, I sold my Game Boy (the first one – without color) and took 80 bucks to the record store in East Aurora, New York and there, peeking out from over the gray display rack, was a hot shiny copy of Pop Life. Granted, we were already closing in on a decade since the Ramas had started chucking their banana peels at the police, and by pop standards, may have at that point been considered a bit “long in the tooth” since they weren’t exactly setting U.S. charts on fire save for Venus a few years earlier. But I had faith. The hot pink font and fishnets called out to me. And even though I had no idea at the time that they had pulled a Bewitched and swapped Darrens on me with some chick named Jacqui (the Shakespears Sister CD would follow soon and the puzzle pieces would slowly come together), I added Pop Life to my purchase along with Jesus Jones and Corina.
Dragonette are back! Their sound has warped into something more…clashy and buzzing, but fundamentally, they’re still a great pop band.
All my electro friends are going bat shit crazy over La Roux. We’ve discerned that La Roux is actually a duo and not just some chick who crushed hard on Duckie’s hair in Pretty in Pink. If you can get past the vocals, which border on shrill at times, you’re in for a great pop ride. Check out the video for Bulletproof below.
This one’s a guilty pleasure. Don’t laugh, but I think that Mandy Moore’s new single, I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week could be my summer driving song…I’m sure it can at least get me through June. Check out the video below. I’m still deciding whether or not the video enhances the song or just kills it; it’s a bit Kill Bill on a budget. If only they’d had enough money to put her in a yellow biking outfit…
Lastly, and let me say this doesn’t happen enough in pop music, is the video for Adele’s Hometown Glory. I loved the song when I heard it on the album, but after seeing the video for it…there’s a craftsmanship that’s missing in pop music, where things are sloppily put together, and this video is amazing piece of visuals that compliments the song perfectly. One enhances the other!
As a fan of Astrid Williamson and her band, Goya Dress, it was unfortunate to see her re-emerge into the music scene, years later, and backed by a newly signed distribution deal with indie/hipster/Bjork label One Little Indian, only to have the press pigeonhole her quiet, gauzy songs as “Folk”. Having heard prior CD’s Boy For You, with it’s rollicking title track, and the fact alone that Goya Dress’ only long player, Rooms, was produced by John Cale, you’d think she’d be reeking of attitude and indie cred.
Four or five years ago, I took it on recommendation to check out Neko Case. At that point I wasn’t familiar with any of her musical output, nor her time spent with the New Pornographers, whose name alone put me off to the idea of giving their music a spin. In fact, even after purchasing Case’s most recent CD at the time, Blacklisted, I was left scratching my head. It crossed genres to create an echoey, haunted, bleak universe; a fragile, still world who’s only warmth was fed by Case’s booming voice, which I do believe can melt ice and break down doors due to it’s sheer force. Yet, after repeated listens, I couldn’t get the math to work out in my head and cast it aside and went along my way.
I can’t believe this was in Time Magazine online, but I was reading an article from June, 2008 about music and if there were discernible differences between homo and heterosexual music (http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1816760,00.html)