Laura Branigan - Gloria & Other Hits
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CD Details
Artist: Laura BraniganEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-10-10
Music Label: Rhino Flashback
Soundtracks:
- Gloria
- The Lucky One
- How Am I Supposed to Live Without You
- Dim All the Lights
- Ti Amo
- Self Control
- Spanish Eddie
- Show Me Heaven
- Over You
- The Power of Love
Music reviews of Gloria & Other Hits
Music Review: Guilty Pleasures...At A Bargain Price
Rating: 3 Stars
Laura Branigan may be the ultimate guilty pleasure: overpowering vocals, cheesy synth dance arrangements. Not exactly subtle, but certainly emotional. You gotta admit that brash as it was, hers was JUST the right voice for a track like "Gloria." I've never heard the original Italian Ugo Tozzi version, but it's hard to imagine it could surpass Branigan's English language Schlock/Meisterstueck. If anyone ever OWNED a song, it was Laura Branigan and "Gloria." True, it's a legitimate question to ask whether or not anyone would really want to "own" a song like "Gloria." But there you are.
And in all honesty, that song was probably as much of a trap and a burdon as it was a gateway to celebrity. At least, in some corners in didn't win her many friends. Consider the case of my ex, the voice major, who HATED that tune and used to say the most horrible things about Branigan as a singer overall--despite the fact that she was actually quite genrerous in her evaluation of other pop and rock performers (so it wasn't just a genre thing).
But I think I understood why. She was reacting solely to "Gloria" and maybe a few of Laura's other more monochrome hits. You've heard of Saul Bellow? Well, this was "ALL Bellows." It's brash: it's overkill--and, as I say, it's the only way this particular song should be sung.
So at least in some quarters, Laura Branigan would be regarded as a purveyor of bombast par excellence. I remember trying to point out to my "ex," that Laura had a few quiet moments (before proceeding to the belted out chorus anyway) in a tune like "Ti Amo," and that she exhibited a fair amount of self-control on "Self Control," but all to no avail. The die was cast, and Branigan's image was--for some--cast in stone.
But for anyone who kinda-sorta liked Laura Branigan, despite her rep for overkill (and there are more of us than you might think), this budgetline CD serves as a pretty good intro. Now I did notice that the sole other Amazon reviewer thus far for this CD carped a bit about the song roster. Yeah, it does seem like
a couple of hits are missing--and a couple of "misses" are hit. That is what you have to expect from a budget CD, mes amis, if you want ALL the hits, you have to PAY more. That''s called capitalism, folks.
For what it is, this is a good sampling of Branigan the hitmaker. As a dabbler here, I would be curious to know if she did indeed include quieter, more reflective tunes on any of her records. Anyone who got her start as a back-up for Leonard Cohen (of all people) must have learned a lesson or two about the advantages of a low key approach. Of course, what she might have wanted to do, and what the record company execs allowed might well have been two different things.
When I learned that Branigan had won some acclaim later in her career for her stagework and singing in the Joplin-based play LOVE, JANIS, I wasn't totally surprised. She had, in her way, as big a voice as Joplin, though not as "whiskey-fied." But on this collection, I noticed traces of vocal grittiness in a few odd and interesting moments. One was her version of "The Power of Love," a track later covered and turned into a megahit by Celine Dion (and which I always assumed was entitled "I'm Your Lady"). Branigan actually de-blandifies the number by laying on a bit of a rasp here and there. I find I much prefer it to Dion's power pop. I mean if this were the kind of tune Janis would even touch, it might have sounded a bit like what Branigan has come up with here.
Heck, if Branigan had just a bit more of a rock'n'roll heart and if she had slung a guitar at all, she might have even given Melissa Etheridge a run for her money. And if she had a bit more of a sense of sheer fun, "The Power of Love" she recorded might have been a lighthearted cover of the Huey Lewis song and not the bit of bombast that Dion would later shoot to the stratosphere.
Now that I would have liked to hear.
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