Like Paul McCartney, she was the cute one, the half-pint, “front
\nwoman” for the quartet, The Bangles. Perhaps it was this uneven
\nattention quotient that forced the members to dissolve the group.
\nWho knows? But they were one heck of a great band.<\/p>\n
Like all great bands you’d expect the parts which are no longer
\nthe sum to shine or attempt to shine on their own. And so it was
\nwith Susanna Hoffs, the most recognizable name from the group. (Go
\nahead name the others).<\/p>\n
Miss Hoffs’s first solo attempt
\nWhen You’re A Boy<\/i> can be written off as the banal fluff that
\nit was. After that flop, the pen was poised to write off Hoffs,
\nherself. But then came the Tuesday Night Music Club to the rescue.
\nYou may remember these guys, Kevin Gilbert, David Baerwald and
\nBrian Macleod. They sprinkled their talents throughout Sheryl
\nCrow’s smash debut.<\/p>\n
Now these musicians would have been more than enough to create
\nincredible sounds — but wait there’s more\u2026 Matthew Sweet
\nand Jason Falkner (Jellyfish), Jon Brion (man with the Midas Touch
\n– Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Macy Gray, The Mommyheads and on and
\non\u2026.), Mick Fleetwood. There is so much talent; so many
\nmusicians on this album you’d figure the Too Many Cooks in The
\nKitchen Rule would apply. Not even! Everyone comports themselves
\nwith restraint. This result is a pleasantly consistent and solid
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
A dusty, jangly guitar pervades the atmosphere of
\nSusanna Hoffs<\/i>. Hoffs’s voice falls through the chords like
\npearl drops with an edge of fine grain sandpaper. The writing in
\nstrong, eloquent and personal. Many of these songs are about
\nrelationships laced with dysfunction. The first song, “Beekeeper’s
\nBlues,” paves the way, the opening lines being “You only call when
\nyou want money \/ And when I need you you’re not there.”<\/p>\n
“King Of Tragedy” casts the singer as the “other woman”: “She’s
\na cross between \/ Emma Peel, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kathy Lee \/ She’s
\ngot a boyfriend \/ He’s 23 \/ She won’t give him up \/ I can’t set him
\nfree \/ And still he means the world to me.”<\/p>\n
An exception, “Eyes Of My Baby,” is a moving song about a single
\nwoman meeting the man of her life. A topic that could have easily
\ntipped the scale towards mawkishness is, instead, delivered with
\nfrankness, conveying the anxiety and bliss that accompanies such a
\ntransition in life: “Had an eight o’clock date with a man I never
\nmet \/ I hate to be late so I headed east on Sunset \/ thinking
\nanything is better \/ Than being alone \/ Now I’m looking in the eyes
\nof my baby \/ Now I’m looking in the eyes of my man \/ No one ever
\ncould be more surprise than me \/ Did you see him smile?”<\/p>\n
“Weak With Love,” a song about two people’s response to the
\nshooting death of John Lennon, is stark and poignant. It drives the
\nloss home better than any other song I’ve heard on the tragedy. You
\nwill immediately relate and recall the moment you heard the
\ndistressing news. There’s also an interesting cover of the
\nLightning Seeds’ “All I Want” in which the lyrics have been
\naltered. If you are familiar with the original you may find this a
\nlittle unsettling but that’s made up by Hoffs’s superb vocals and
\nthe dash of rockabilly added to the arrangement.<\/p>\n
I can’t recall right now which reviewer on this panel has an
\nallergic reaction to those secret tracks tacked on to the end of a
\ndisc.
\n[Editor’s note: Nice way not to piss off the boss, Alicia.]<\/i>
\nUsually, they are dross, not worthy of studio time. But let me tell
\nyou, the two surprise tracks at the end of
\nSusanna Hoffs<\/i> are pure gems! The first, a gorgeous cover of
\n“To Sir With Love” rivals Lulu’s version. The second, “Stuck In The
\nMiddle With You” completely out does the Steeler’s Wheel original.
\nIt is downright funky!<\/p>\n
This is by far Hoffs’s most mature effort. And I mean with or
\nwithout the Bangles. It’s a crime that this album hasn’t garnered
\nthe attention it deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6488],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36895","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-susanna-hoffs","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36895"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}