"Even When You Play It As You Like It"

Siobhan Donaghy: 

Revolution In Me

A little over a decade ago, the Sugababes' first departure resurfaced with her solo debut. It's an interesting album considering when, how and why it was made. 

In a recent interview, Siobhan has suggested that the reason she (and possibly Mutya Buena as well) recorded solo records after leaving the Sugababes was due to not being able to do anything else. The genesis of the group and the recording of One Touch essentially displaced their education. In fact, One Touch was high school for them!  

Revolution In Me could then be considered Siobhan's uni/college years. It certainly feels rooted in the growing pains of young adulthood. In many ways this record is the successor to One Touch. It is very tempting and a little unfair to see it this way but in hindsight, the lineage is clear. Cameron McVeigh served as executive producer for both records, providing creative continuity with the first line-up of the Sugababes. What Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan learned about making music, they learned form him. So many songs on Revolution in Me feel reminiscent of the Sugababes. One hears a similarity to Mutya in Siobhan's lower register. One expects Keisha to float in with  her heavenly ad-libs and high notes. None of this is to say that Siobhan's voice is in any way inadequate. Here, she demonstrates her ability to carry an album by herself. Later on with Ghosts she took her talents even further. It's merely that the connections to her past are so strong, they cannot be ignored.

The main theme of this album seems to be young adulthood and emerging identities. The navel-gazing of adolescence gives way to a greater perspective. Revolution in Me's first single Overrated is an overcast, guitar-driven song about wanting to come out of depression. Twist of Fate, the second single, is less a break-up song and more an expression of disappointment. Iodine, my favourite song on the album, would have been Siobhan's Christmas single. It's a rootsy earthy song that skirts political themes and evokes animal farming  to forment a sense of doom. Man Without Friends continues with the rootsy feel but adds a bit of bounce. As You Like It is quite possibly the most Sugababes-y song on the album: a mid-tempo urban pop song with a dark tone. The vocals combine high and low notes in a similar way to what you'll hear on Overload. Another song which recalls the Sugababes is a B-side, Those Anythings, very relaxed and jazzy track that would fit into the score of any film-noir. XY is a more quirky, left-field song inspired by human genetics. Faces is a more laid-back built around a steel drum melody. Little bits is one of the more stygian songs on Revolution in Me. It describes a sort of descent, into what is left to the interpretation of the listener. I would say it describes a toxic relationship, the kind it's all to easy to slip into when one is young.

The early 2000s were a very odd time and this rather odd album fits in with my recollection of those years. Revolution in Me is eclectic and throbbing with sad restlessness. A worthy follow-up to One Touch, it introduces us to Siobhan as a solo artist in her own right.

Star Trek: Third Eye Blind

This post is my response to the Star Trek Voyager review of Meld from Confused Matthew. It's a  wonderful review that reminded me of just how much wasted potential there was in Star Trek Voyager. What had not occurred to me before Confused Matthew's review however, was how awesome Suder might have been as a long-term  recurring character. It also got me thinking about the Betazoids and how much smaller their presence in the franchise is compared to, say, Vulcans or Klingons. Given the facile, uni-dimensional approach to fictional species on Voyager, Suder's status as a Betazoid is meant to be a novelty and is only ever mentioned once or twice. But then I remembered something Deanna Troi said during the TNG episode, "The Loss".  During the course of the episode, Deana loses her empathic sense completely. At one point, her friend and ex-lover, Will Riker, tries to comfort her and she sobs that he's no more real to her than a character in a holodeck program. I think that this offers us a possible reason for not only why he was able to so easily take people's lives, but also why he didn't seem able to express why he was driven to kill. It's not that he was driven by anything; it's that nothing was holding him back.  Just like Commander Troi, people aren't real to him. Killing them is  like erasing a hologram.

Troi's loss of her empathic sense is much more profound than her ability to read emotions. Even when she encounters Ferengi whom she normally cannot read, she can still sense their consciousness. They're still real. In "The Loss", it's as if there's nothing there in the people around her.  Most of the times that Troi uses the Holodeck she tends to use landscapes rather then programs where she interacts with characters. Likely this is because she cannot suspend her disbelief enough to do so. This puts her friendship with Data in an interesting light, Does she perceive a vague unreadable something emanating from his positronic brain? Or does she learn to recognize his personhood in the absence of the evidence thereof that she relies on. This would have been a fascinating interaction to explore given that she's a psychologist and he's an autonomous, artificially intelligent person.  I like to imagine that she published a mountain of articles and case-studies about him or that whenever they played 3d-chess, she was engaging in participant observation or something.

I think of how lost and angry Troi becomes in the Loss. Obviously, she was reeling from losing one of her senses. What if she was also afraid? Maybe she was anxious about becoming a monster like Suder. Maybe the dirty little secret of the Betazoids is that when they succumb to solipsism they become  more violent than any Klingon and more twisted than any Romulan.

With a bit of effort and attention, the Betazoids could have been a fascinating and, frankly dangerous species. The trope of gentle empaths is ubiquitous in Sci-fi. Having their telepathy be the only thing keeping them from being super-creepy monsters might have yielded a narrative goldmine for Star Trek.

High Contrast

For some reason, I remember the late 90s as being a really great era for movies. I think it's just that I went to the cinema more often back then than I do now. It was also a pivotal time for me: young adulthood, life in a new country and discovering my identity as a queer person.  Of course, that meant that I watched nearly every queer themed film that came out in  theatres in at the time.

High Art portrays a relationship between Syd, a young photo editor and Lucy, a reclusive former photographer who happen to live in the same building. Both women are already in relationships, the former with a boyfriend, the latter with a girlfriend. Long story short, the two characters engage in a  romantic and sexual affair. Complicating matters is that Syd's magazine wants her to convince the photographer to shoot for them after years of obscurity. Working so closely together both intensifies and threatens their relationship.

If I remember correctly, this was a comeback for Ally Sheedy, known for being in the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club. She joins a great cast including Radha Mitchell as the younger love-interest, Patricia Clarkson as a delightful German heroin addict and Gabriel Mann as Syd's cuckold. Even though this film came out over a decade and a half ago, everyone looks mostly the same now as they did then.

The relationship between the two leads is one of contrasts: blonde/brunette, mature/youthful, artist/editor, sober/addicted. These differences draw them to one another. Suffice it to say the relationship has a few obstacles, namely that one of them is a heroin addict and both of them are already spoken for. It is to this film's credit that the affair doesn't feel doomed. From the outset the association between the two women feels  finite. Sheedy and Mitchell seem to insert that awareness into their characters. Another thing I appreciated was that no excuses are made for their infidelity and most important of all, the people being cheated on are not villainized in the process.

It is impossible to discuss High Art without including its third protagonist: heroin. The stuff is everywhere. The 'high'of the title takes on several meanings: aesthetic judgement, opiate-induced euphoria and the limerence of new love. It's difficult to separate the three. The various party scenes in Lucy's apartment are weighed down with lethargy, her circle of hangers-on seem as if they are in slow-motion. Lucy herself often seems mesmerized by everything she encounters. Both Gretta (Lucy's lover) and James (Syd's boyfriend) question Syd's interst in Lucy. I'm fairly certain that we're supposed to see the relationship as an epic romance that liberated both characters. It comes across more ambiguously because of the performances of Gabriel Mann and Patricia Clarkson. Rather than jealous bitter losers or rejects, they each invest their criticisms of Syd with a calm perceptiveness as if they really are seeing red flags rather than grasping at straws.

I like that the Syd's bisexuality is not portrayed as inherently problematic. Having said that, her relationship with her boyfriend is presented as boring and staid yet stable compared to the creatively stimulating yet volatile relationship between her and the photographer. Overall, this is  lovely example of Queer Independent Cinema from the 90s.

EBTG Unplugged.

Everything But the Girl: Acoustic 

This is one of the most pleasant albums to listen to from start to finish. The tracks are all live performances and one can hear audible applause at various points. Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn prove two things here: their merit as performers, their talent as songwriters.


The covers are all lovely and more importantly imprinted as Everything but the Girl songs. The Idol franchise always hammered in the concept of making the songs your own, but here EBTG. Of the five covers of this album, one stands out for me in particular. Time after Time, one of the most relentlessly covered pop standards of all time, is simply magical here. Ben and Tracy sound amazing together and it shows that they've been singing together for most of their lives. Come on Home sways with warmth and sensuality.

The stripped down version of  Driving is the only one I listen to anymore, it's that perfect. Apron Strings also benefits from being simplified. The acoustic version is more crystalline and the addition of a harmony renders the song magical. Fascination gets the most applause before silencing its audience with Tracey's intimate vocals. It is an incredible closer for an album that displays such emotional range for a quiet acoustic album.

There's just something about the acoustic set. Video sharing sites are full of them. Established stars and emerging artists alike use them to showcase their talents. They offer recording artists a chance to prove their mettle away from the cocoon of the studio. With this 1992 release, Everything but the Girl showed off their considerable skills and left us with something truly special.

Odd One Out: The Adventures of Ishtar

Macross II: Lovers Again is an oddity in the Macross Franchise. Relegated to a secondary continuity, it kind of gets lost in the fandom. It's not that it's bad, exactly. Its aestehetic is very Macross. The world portrayed is quite interesting too: cities built on top of crashed Zentraedi ships, the implication that most of the Earth's population are micronized Zentraedi or human-Zentraedi hybrids and a militarized Earth's hubris around the so-called 'Minmei attack'.

Set eighty years after Space War I, Macross II has a separate continuity to the franchise, being conceived as a sequel to Macross Do You Remember Love? 

In my mind, the element that elevates this OVA from merely 'okay' to 'underrated' is its protagonist Ishtar. She is a well conceived and well-written character with a clear and compelling narrative arc. In fact, her story is the strongest element of Macross II.

The Macross conceit of a pop star's voice affecting an alien army is subverted with the introduction of the Marduk who apparently figured out the whole 'Minmei' effect as well. It's actually quite fascinating to  imagine  the story of SDFMacross playing out differently on another world, several different species dealing with the Zentraedi each in their own way. Rather than integrate them, these guys  have enslaved a Zentraedi army of their own using young women of their number to sing haunting refrains to hypnotize them.  Ishtar is one of these women.

The character design is suitably otherworldly when she is introduced to us a one of the Marduk. Her look becomes more girl-next-door yet still recognizable as opportunistic journalist Hibiki shows her around Earth. Unlike more iconic Macross characters like Max or Mirya, her hair and eye colours are more pastel shades, giving her a generally soft, ethereal appearance.

Especially welcome is her reaction to the resolution of Macross II's love triangle. Hibiki chooses to rekindle things with his ex-lover, Sylvie, at the end of the series. While she's clearly disappointed, Ishtar takes it like a champ. She allows herself to feel like shit about being rejected while appreciating Hibiki's friendship and setting off to reform her entire society.

She's already off to a good start. It is she who turns the tide in the war between Earth and the Marduk. Even more than Misa Hayase, Ishtar is the protagonist of her show. However, while Misa had other strong characters to share the limelight with, Ishtar doesn't. She stands out amongst characters that could have been better than they were. Frankly that might be a fair assessment of Macross II generally: great protagonist, interesting ideas and lots of potential. 

"I am No Longer Like the Others..."

For the life of me I have never understood how anyone could say they have no regrets. The very  act of making choices leaves one with a road not taken. The very act of living entails giving something up. Regret figures heavily in The Last Unicorn, one of the defining traits of the Unicorn is that she feels no regret. It's part of what makes her other than human (you know, outside of being a magical quadruped). The Unicorn has a lot of negative experiences she one would think might cause her to regret her choices. However, it's only when she is takes on human form and then changes back into a Unicorn that we see her understand regret.

Initially, the change is a desperate attempt by Schmendrick to save the Unicorn. During her first encounter with the Red Bull, she freaks out and the beast nearly send her into the sea. It's a brilliant idea, as the Bull discards her immediately. The plan works and Amalthea, along with Schmendrick, Molly and Lir, find the Red Bull and confront him. Schmendrick returns the Unicorn to her natural form and she chickens out again. Lir tries to get between them and is mortally wounded. This causes the Unicorn to snap out of her fear and drives the Red Bull into the sea the way it did to the Unicorns. Her brethren take this as their cue to re-materialize out of the surf and stampede out of the sea.

The transformation from Unicorn to Amalthea interests me on multiple levels. First, it feels like a price she must pay to fulfill her quest. Second, it's fascinating how the 'fake' identity of Amalthea becomes real. The transformation starts on the outside and works its way in. It's as if walking around in a human body has given her a human heart and a human mind. Even King Haggard starts to notice. The first time he creepily gets in her space, he sees the Unicorn's home forest in Amalthea's eyes. The second time he accosts her he sees his own reflection, which pisses him off. Falling in love with Haggard's son, Lir seems to have helped things along. While it is may seem obvious that the romantic connection between the Lir and Amalthea is what makes her identify as a mortal being, I'm not sure it's that simple. Lir only loves her because she's a pretty, human-looking princess. Love, for all its poetry is a superficial process.

Now that she has regained her immortality, the Unicorn will spend that eternity wondering what might have been had she abandoned her people to their watery prison and walked away from her quest. She would have lived a finite human life at Lir's side... wondering what might have happened had she faced the Bull and freed the Unicorns.That is why I can neither accept nor believe those who claim to live without regret. Every choice great or small carries with it the weight of what might have been. What the Unicorn shows in her final conversation with Schmendrick is that she can carry that burden with grace and dignity.

"Is That What You Wanted to See?"

Everything 

But the Girl:

Amplified Heart 

This album is known for one thing more than anything else and I'll get to that thing in good time but I have to start this review with a pet peeve of mine. It annoys me to no end when recording artists put out records that amount to singles and filler. It's insulting when I put more thought into my bedtime playlist than a singer or band's team puts into their album. While I understand that this sort of thing is generally a result of the creativity vs. business cage-match,  it still sucks.

Which brings me to Amplified Heart. Everything but the Girl are every inch the album artist. Their records are truly coherent bodies of work that hold together nicely.  A mostly acoustic album, Amplified Heart features some of the best songwriting I've ever come across in my life. It is, of course, the album which yielded the duo's biggest hit. But that signature song is often remembered in isolation from the LP it was born into. I find that there is much more to it when considered alongside its siblings.

Rollercoaster opens the album with a languid and very British take on bossa-nova. The 'other' single from Amplified Heart, it's one of my favourite songs from EBTG. It sets the tone for the rest of the album with its combination of wistfulness and  longing. Troubled Mind is a jaunty mid-tempo ballad with some jazz guitar popping in towards the end. It speaks about the inscrutability of other people. This desire to get inside the head of another and the anguish at not being able to recurs throughout Amplified Heart.

I Don't Understand Anything  carries us into EBTG's trademark melancholy. Much slower and more deliberate than the previous two tracks, the song delivers a great deal of pathos. Walking to You  is a duet with Ben and Tracy singing either side of a bittersweet reunion between two exes. Get Me wonders aloud about ever being understood, its mercurial lyrics going nicely with a brooding cello.

Missing is the song that EBTG are known for. In terms of commercial success, it eclipses everything else that they have done. One can speculate why "Missing" blew up the way it did, or why it was this song and not, say, "Driving". But I, personally, am not qualified to know what made it happen. I will say that it's the acoustic, album version of the track that I fell in love with and listened to endlessly through high school. The complicated guitar riffs, the dramatic strings and the ever so slight bounce of the bass guitar all adding up to a plaintive account of loss and longing. "Missing" fits perfectly at the centre of Amplified Heart.

Two Star gives us one of the more complex entries on this record. It narrates someone who can't resist commenting on another person's relationship. It's a wince-inducing character-study brimming with resentment and bitterness. We Walk the Same Line is a more rootsy song about adversity and difficulty. It takes the perspective of one person reassuring another that they are not alone in going through tough times. The lyrics are especially resonant for me given some  of the things I've been through since the first time I listened to this song. 25th of December sees Ben Watt takes lead vocals on a simply arranged number with a haunting refrain.  Disenchanted is a quietly low-key closer which seems to sum up the experience of Amplified Heart. Tracy Thorn's intimate vocals deliver contemplative lyrics in the second person. A saxophone takes on the role of a duet partner adding a level of sophistication and wistfulness to the track.

Amplified Heart to me represents Everything but the Girl at their apex. Obviously the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing" took over the world for a year and a half but the real triumph in my view, is the creative accomplishment represented by Amplified Heart. It is no less than one of the most beautiful  albums I have ever listened to. Pop music that is truly mature is hard to come by. These songs touched me deeply when I was young and they still work for me to this day.