straightorbroken
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- Joined
- Jul 27, 2011
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- 46,800
This happened yesterday. Centre of the Heart held back of course for some reason (I'm glad it was if it got lead single status out of it, but it would have been a great single here too). I Was So Lucky sounding gorgeous as a sultry under layer to the exquisite Wish I Could Fly. Per's 7twenty7 and You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone both have great voltage and the former especially signposts us to the next album's Shania-levels of berserk banger You Make My Head Go Pop. The album's abundance of pop spark more than met the demands of a vibrant 1999 pop market thirst and yet US promotion was muted and, although a successful era, album sales stopped at a modest 2 million where the material was there to set ablaze for much more. Marie is beyond resplendent, her self-penned Waiting for the Rain functions especially to serve a folkier balance to their more typical commercial kitchen sink ambition. Crush on You is as ridiculous as it is laden with hooks, swoops and surges of bravado ("we got a good thing going on" indeed). The rapidly swanky high energy of Stars is no small wonder either, in dazzling, dizzying dance debt, with Marie in full pelt diva mode, whether surrounded by beats, orphans or else with lush orchestral trimmings as on Anyone and Salvation. M&P's classic call and responce is closest replicated on Pay the Price, a strummy slice of 60s jangle and Per verges on Wannadies territory, particularly on the wide-eyed middle 8. Another acoustic song, Staring At the Ground is punctured with electronica and Marie's vocals are the gushing outpouring fuel. I'll finish this off just by gushing about the absolute perfection of the atmospheric, romantic swoon of Wish I Could Fly and it's trip hop tip toeing, turning enqui into lust and anguish as the sky delivers the movement activating one's desire. An absolutely career defining highlight. And What the hell, the lush closer Beautiful Things continues the album's more grounded flair for translating the almost mundane and ordinary into magnificent moody music. A true return to form, I just wish it were rendered more iconic in a way that only properly being full of hit singles can deliver. And yet, Have A Nice Day is confidently thrilling and flies incredibly high, around and around.
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