Virgin Voices is one of the best tribute albums I've ever heard. I happened to come across it when I was doing a Madonna search on Spotify.

All of the tracks are more than decent (well except for the dreadful and very odd cover of "Material Girl"), but the incredibly impressive ones include: Dead or Alive's take on "Why's It So Hard," Heaven 17's "Holiday," Annabella Lwin's "Like A Virgin" and Flock of Seagull's "This Used To Be My Playground."

Atralasia's version of "Vogue" is intriguing vocally, but the tempo has been intensified to the point that it sounds almost cartoon-like, a sound that also shows up on "Bad Girl" (James Hardway with Amanda Ghost.)

Front Line Assembly's "Justify My Love" actually improves on the original, sounding more sultry than sleazy. "Open Your Heart" by Ofra Haza has an opera quality to it and is very beautiful. I could go on and on about the rest of the album (on two discs) but it's so awesome you need to discover it for yourself!

Another Madonna tribute album that's not half bad is by The Popettes. Instead of a variety of artists, it's just one and while the Popettes take few creative liberties and stay almost 100% faithful to the original versions, Tribute to Madonna is still worth a listen.

Of particular note is the Popettes' take on "Miles Away;" it's actually better than Madonna's.

In reading news stories online about Amy Winehouse, I've already seen dozens and dozens of  rather unkind comments posted about her specifically and drug addicts in general.

The most striking note (one that is kind and sincere) I saw posted simply said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." I'm not a particularly religious person, but I've always liked this line.

I don't know a lot about drug addiction, but I do know that unless someone is deeply suicidal, chances are she is not planning her own death when she takes that first drug. And that once her life begins spiraling out of control, she  is truly helpless to take it all back and start over unless someone else is deeply committed to helping her.

All I really can say for certain about Amy Winehouse is that she had a spectacular voice and was instrumental in bringing about the recent wave of 60s girl group (say The Shangri-Las) sound fused with jazz. Duffy, quite good but not nearly as much a belter, came after Amy...as did the amazing Adele.

"I know Amy Winehouse very well," Lily Allen once said. "And she is very different to what people portray her as being. Yes, she does get out of her mind on drugs sometimes, but she is also a very clever, intelligent, witty, funny person who can hold it together. You just don't see that side."

Sometimes it's easy and tempting to say drug addicts dig their own grave, but I think it's a lot, lot more complicated an issue and that expressing sympathy and other heart-felt emotions doesn't mean you condone drugs. It just means that your heart is big enough to feel bad for anyone who is suffering no matter what the cause...

Re:lounge: Celebrating The Hits of George Michael and Wham is not nearly as bad as you'd expect a knock-off version of George Michael covers to be. I discovered the album on the (awesome!) Spotify. Of particular note is the lovely (though not nearly as lovely as the original) and surprisingly disco-friendly take on "A Different Corner," one of the saddest and prettiest songs to come out of the 80s.

...
It's a day later and I'm still intrigued by this odd album...I can't find out who the singer is...it's clearly not George Michael or a voice as wonderful as his, but it's oddly fascinating and almost as heart-breaking on "A Different Corner." This isn't the case on all the covers, but certainly this one!

Found my old copy of The Pointer Sisters' Greatest Hits tonight and am really enjoying re-discovering their music.


I was in the fifth grade when "He's So Shy" first started getting lots of airplay on the radio and I was simply mad for it. Somehow I got it in my head that it was an anthem for shy people everywhere and it gave me this ridiculous amount of hope (and a little thrill) whenever it caught me off guard with it's familiar opening notes.

A few years later the trio's very very popular album Breakout came out and "Automatic" caught my ear. I was only in middle school at the time and just liked it for its awesome sounds, but now I realize that it captures how love (or at least, lust) truly feels (inside) more than any other song.

Look what you're doing to me
I'm utterly at your whim
All of my defenses down
Your camera looks through me
With its X-ray vision
And all systems run aground
All I can manage to push from my lips
Is a stream of absurdities
Every word I intended to speak
Winds up locked in the circuitry
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down, down
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
What is this madness
That makes my motor run
And my legs too weak to stand
I go from sadness
To exhilaration
Like a robot at your command
My hands perspire and shake like a leaf
Up and down goes my temperature
I summon doctors to get some relief
But they tell me there is no cure
They tell me
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down, down
(Automatic)
(Automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Look what you're doing to me
I'm utterly at your whim
All of my defenses down
Your camera looks through me
With its X-ray vision
And all systems run aground
All I can manage to push from my lips




































Is a stream of absurdities
Every word I intended to speak
Winds up locked in the circuitry
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down
No way to control it
It's totally automatic (automatic)
Whenever you're around (automatic)
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic (automatic)
All of my systems are down
Down, down


Breakout was definitely one of my favorite albums from the 80s...I love All Music's website review for it:

read here

"Destroyed" is sounding pretty awesome to me right now. I like Moby's most recent album more than anything he's done since "Play" in 1999. And the title is pretty accurate.

So many of the songs are full of the kind of emotion that only comes from having been through the wringer. Moby himself has said that the music was inspired by the feeling of isolation you can get being all alone in the middle of the night in a barren city.

There are some soulful tracks, like "The Right Thing," that go down easy like your favorite drink and help ease the loneliness, but the real kick in the gut is “The Day,” where he brings to mind David Bowie in his Heroes days. The sound is so sad and haunting it's almost devastating, especially when you really take in what the song is all about.

I've only had one evening to listen to this gorgeous album so there are still a lot of things about it I have missed. Some of the critical reviews I have read are ready to dismiss this as average, but I think that's a mistake...'cause there's a lot of yet to be discovered beauty here...