Monday, April 12, 2010
First Lady, Third World, Second Take
Wow! It looks like David Byrne hit another career high with his two-disc concept album about the life of Imelda Marcos, who reigned from 1965-1988 as the very well-heeled dictator's first lady. This is, so far, one of the 2-3 best albums of 2010!That's quite a statment considering the brilliance of David Byrne's musical trajectory - as a 23-year-old art student he founded Talking Heads, serving for decades as both lead vocalist and principal songwriter of that legendary, seminal new wave band.
His partner in crime is über-DJ Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim of 'Praise You' fame, though it's a Byrne effort through and through. In fact, I'm trying to figure out what Cook actually contributed...
The 22 songs in the Imelda cycle follow her relationship with the much poorer woman who raised her, Estrella Cumpos, from childhood through success and then exile.
These 22 songs are rendered by 22 different vocalists, mostly a 'who's who' of distinctive contemporary chanteuses, including Santigold (on the single 'Please Don't' which is today's Song of the Week), Tori Amos, Nellie McKay, Natalie Merchant, Sia, Kate Pierson of the B-52s, and many many others...
Here's the single, 'Please Don't...
Here's the single, 'Please Don't...
No more videos alas, but the audio is so exciting! Here's Alice Russell's electrifying, melodic and souful disco rave up 'Men Will Do Anything,' about Imelda's first discovery of her husband's infidelities...
Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine sings the gritty but operatic title track and cycle opener 'Here Lies Love...'
Closing out the cycle, Tori Amos & Cyndi Lauper's plaintive and funky 'Why Don't You Love Me?'...
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