#406: Adam Schmitt, "Elizabeth Einstein" (1991)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdxyXJqgvNI

We have another case where there's the artist's usual style, and then there's the song in question. Adam Schmitt's album World So Bright is, in general, an excellent collection of "power-pop". That's a species of indie-pop premised, I believe, on the idea that since the Beatles' Help! was an immensely charming record that everyone loved in 1965, and inspired dozens of soundalikes to record hits of their own, music inspired by it should still be loved by everybody today.

This is not, in my view, a completely silly premise.

#413: Joan Armatrading, "Tell Me" (2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m33icE2L0tQ


Joan Armatrading, like Joni Mitchell, began her recording career before my birth as a folk and folk-pop artist -- distinguished at first in Armatrading's case by her soulful contralto voice -- and then stretched out. Joan's career progression was an unpredictable one, experimenting on different albums with Elton John-style rockers, disco, reggae, collaborations with Springsteen’s E Street Band, perky New Wave synth-pop, and — as her voice got deeper and richer — roots-rock and blues, although those rootsy explorations were made unconventional by her increasingly novel chord sequences.


The style-hopping meant that it was easy to enjoy one of her albums and be put off by the next,

#421: Janet Jackson, "Velvet Rope" (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeO4Da3J-sM

Neither the album Velvet Rope nor the title song were anything I expected, in 1997, to like. I've mentioned that my songs countdown is going to under-represent black artists; it's nothing to do with malice, and quite a lot to do with the simple fact that at least in the United States, white and black listeners are exposed to different musical traditions (on average, obviously with many exceptions, but my musical listening growing up at home was *entirely* white). One broad difference, as I perceive it, is a traditional white-music emphasis on composed melodies, versus a traditional black-music emphasis on dance rhythms, bass, and melismatic vocal improvisation. I had no use for Janet's Rhythm Nation 1814, nor do I now, and I wouldn't have expected to from the title (although the "1814" part sounds intriguingly specific; I've never figured out its referent, sadly, and the socially conscious lyrics throughout seem vague and limp to me).

Velvet Rope on the other hand puts more emphasis on tunes. Every song has a good beat,