Cyndi Lauper Album: “She's So Unusual [Remaster]”

It's hard to believe it's been 17 years since this album was first released. I can remember seeing the video for "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" on TBS Night Tracks(no MTV my area then)constantly and getting taken in by it's infectious hook. That song and it's three other top five singles("Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through The Night") make this album one of the staples of 80's pop music, and is still lots of fun to listen to. With her eclectic style and hanging out with pro wrestlers, Cyndi Lauper's talent as a singer and songwriter got a bit overshadowed. But listening to this album again after many years makes those talents perfectly clear. Remastered and filled out with three live bonus tracks including the live video version of "Money Changes Everything", make this reissue a great value.

This review refers to the SACD version of this classic album. From reading other reviews of the SACD of CYNDI LAUPER, SHE'S SO UNUSUAL, one gets the feeling that the SACD version has a different mix than the black vinal or the standard CD of the same title. This just is not so! The SACD version of this excellent CYNDI LAUPER album has the same exact mix as all of the previous versions, but the SACD really rocks. Confusion might arise regarding an engineers sound mastering and an engineers sound mixing of music, and that is understandable.When an artist goes to the studio to record a song, they do so on a multi-channel tape machine. These original mixdown tapes, which often contain 8, 16 or even 32 tracks of information, contain the information which correlates to individual instruments and vocal takes. These original mixdown tapes are then mixed together to create a final version of the song that contains all of the different elements from the various instuments and vocals. This original master tape of an artists product usually contain just two channels, a right and a left channel, and it is this version that we, the consumer, listen to on the radio and from CDs. It is important to note, that a remastered disc does not mean remixed, it means that an engineer went back to the original master tape and tweaked the sound of the two channel information to clean up the distortion, or to otherwise make some minor adjustments to the sound quality.That is exactly what this SACD version of SHE'S SO UNUSUAL contains, a remastered edition of this classic album, not a remixed version. You can rest assured that when you play this SACD you will hear the same mix of vocals and instruments that you are familar with, but with a new vibrancy and clearness that will blow you away. As a very huge fan of this classic album, I can tell you that this SACD version blows away every other version for sound quality. Once you listen to the SACD of SHE'S SO UNUSUAL, you will be CYNDI LAUPER fan forever.

She's So Unusual is one of the best debut albums in the history of music.Unfortunately for Cyndi, with the release of this album drew unfair comparisons between herself and Madonna. Fortunately, this album is far superior to anything Madonna has put out as a whole in her entire career. She's So Unusual is a mix of fun pop songs and songs sung from the heart. There's no shortage of fun here, with Girls just Want to Have Fun, Yeah Yeah, I'll Kiss You and even She Bop which also raised a few eyebrows back in 1983. Of course, with Money Changes Everything, Time After Time, When You Were Mine (written by Prince), and All Through The Night, Cyndi's songs are so powerful and heartfelt it's hard to understand where those ridiculous Madonna comparisons came from. This is one of the best albums released in the 80's and remains one of my personal favorites today, this does not come off as 80's drek, infact it hasn't dated at all. It's a fun, emotional and wonderful exhibit of one of music's most unique and wonderful artists.

It's easy to undertsand why Cyndi Lauper will always have a place in music history. This album says it all. Songs like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Time After Time" take me back to those days when I was a kid and had those songs on vinyl. "Money Changes Everything" is so true in its message that people will only stand by you if you have money. Of course the scandalous (in those days) "She Bop" shows that Cyndi was not afraid to talk about something that only few artists have dared to mention in their songs. The 1920's-ish "He's So Unusal" reflects Cyndi's uniqueness which is why I think this album was so successful. All the songs are great and they reflect that 80's beat that we all know and love. Buy this album, you won't regret it!

First off, I'm 16 so what the heck am I doing writing about something that my older cousin owns on record? Well, for starters I love 80's music (heck, I was born in the decade!) I like my hip-hop, R&B and Justin Timberlake pop era too but this album has got to be my cure for getting out of the blues. I LOVE this album, not gushing, but I LOVE it. It's so good, even though Cyndi does not have a diva voice, she can belt it out like she was one. I absolutly love "Time After Time" and the controversial "She Bop" and of course you can't miss with "Girls Just Wanna..." well you know the rest. The live tracks on the end are pretty special and give a new twist on some classics so this is a keeper of an album. I recommend this album for anyone who just wants to jump around and let it all hang out cause this album will do that. "Money Changes Everything" kicks it off, which I like in it's hard-rocking sort of way. The Prince remake "When You Were Mine" is excellent, Prince whould be proud, "All Through The Night" is another fave of mine, very mystical and dream like. "Witness" sounds like something The Police whould do, you know the guitar work not the Cyndi singing part :) but I like this song nonetheless. "I'll Kiss You" is kinda dumb, really demanding and dumb (I sometimes skip this one). "Yeah, Yeah" is just down right fun and scream out, "Yeah, Yeah" over and over again. Cyndi is the coolest, she's not afraid to have fun and be strange at the same time. I'm sorry Britney but Cyndi, Madonna, Janet, Whitney, Mariah, Taylor, Paula and Jody will always be my fave pop queens.