Music recs: Lorie, Marc Almond, Michael Stanley [Band] September 24, 2019

Lorie: fun, catchy, energetic ’00s teen pop (mostly French). She’s also the French VA for a bunch of animated characters, so you can imagine any of these being sung by, say, Tinkerbell or Violet Parr. (Lorie playlist.)

This first one is a cheesy bilingual song about a cross-cultural romance:

Marc Almond: synthpop, new-wave, drag-show cabaret. He was the lead singer of Soft Cell (i.e. the Tainted Love guy); this is mostly the solo stuff he did afterward. (Marc Almond playlist.)

This last one is a heartfelt song about the drag scene:

Michael Stanley [Band]: classic ’70s and ’80s rock with a working-class Midwestern heart. It’s like if the E Street Band was from Ohio. Their highest-charting single even got Clarence Clemons on sax. (Michael Stanley Band playlist.)

Music recs: Kansas, Laura Branigan, Lifehouse September 13, 2019

Kansas: classic rock with complex symphonic arrangements. All we are is dust in the wind, man. (Kansas playlist.)

Laura Branigan: pop-rock, synthpop, dance, heartfelt hurt/comfort love songs. (Laura Branigan playlist.)

Lifehouse: Post-grunge alt-rock. Some of the songs have spiritual overtones, but they’re not a religious band. (Lifehouse playlist.)

This first one is an eerily-perfect “Stephen Colbert” theme song.

Music recs: Jean-Jacques Goldman, Julia Ecklar, ABWH September 4, 2019

Jean-Jacques Goldman: pop-rock, currently the highest-grossing French-language artist alive in the genre. (Jean-Jacques Goldman playlist.)

Julia Ecklar: filk (SFF-themed folk music produced by fandom), in between being a sci-fi writer. Covers the gamut from “earnest odes to space exploration” to “comedy songs about tribbles.” (Julia Ecklar playlist.)

(See also: To Touch The Stars playlist, a multi-artist album of space-exploration tribute songs.)

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe: progressive rock, four former members of Yes that released a single album as their own group. No specific homages (that I know of), but IMO it has the same general weird/hopeful/cosmic vibe of ’70s-’80s SF. (ABWH playlist.)

Music recs: Icehouse, Jack’s Mannequin, Jann Arden August 23, 2019

Icehouse – new-wave synth-pop, lots of romantic ’80s earnestness. Originally known as Flowers, published an album titled Icehouse, then changed their band name to Icehouse, because why make things easy. (Icehouse playlist. The end has a bunch of videos with lyrics, but apparently-random instrumental audio.)

Jack’s Mannequin – 2000’s California alt-rock. Touching, melancholy/hopeful — the frontrunner retired the name in part because these albums were “wrapped up in a whole lot of turmoil and tumult in a very difficult time in [his] life.” (Jack’s Mannequin playlist.)

Jann Arden – romantic pop, lot of yearning ballads. (Jann Arden playlist.)

Music recs: Gregorian, Hayley Westenra, Heart August 17, 2019

Starting with a multi-artist cover band.

Gregorian – Gregorian-chant-inspired covers of pop/rock songs, full choir and all. They record in churches and only pick songs that are “translatable into the 7-tone scale,” which I assume is more historically authentic. (Gregorian playlist. Switches to non-cover-music Gregorian chanting around track 175.)

(Pink Floyd)

(Sarah Brightman)

(Celine Dion)

(Simon & Garfunkel)

(anyway here’s Wonderwall)

Hayley Westenra – operatic new-age classical-pop singer. Apparently has songs in over a dozen languages — including Maori, Japanese, Spanish, and (since she did a version of “May It Be”) Quenya. (Hayley Westenra playlist.)

Heart – classic ’70s rock, lots of big hair and power ballads. (Heart playlist.)