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  • The Falsettometer: Jimmy Somerville

    I’d been having a hard time thinking of more singers to use in this column, when it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Well, no, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it did pop up on my iPod when I least expected it…a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, performed by Jimmy Somerville, former lead singer of Bronski Beat and The Communards. A fixture of 1980s pop who has never stopped recording, Somerville also deserves notice as one of the first openly gay pop musicians.

    Having obviously taken stylistic tips from Sylvester, Somerville’s falsetto can best be described as piercing. He can sing higher than most female singers I can think of, which is pretty damn high. Come to think of it, unlike just about every other singer I’ve profiled in one of these columns, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him perform in his natural register.

    47-year old Somerville still performs, although his album releases are few and far between, and as far as I know, can still hit those high notes. Not bad, eh? Here’s one of the many disco-era covers Somerville’s recorded-a take on “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.

  • We’ve Got Music – Girls On The Dance Floor

    A good friend of mine is friends with music producers Stereotypes and she sent me an .MP3 of the group’s latest production to share with everyone. It’s a song they produced for the Asian American rap group Far*East Movement, and word is that it’s getting a good amount of airplay in Los Angeles.

    Take a listen to Girls On The Dance Floor below. If you have any thoughts about the song, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I’ll be sure to pass them along.

    Or, just click this link.

    Girls On The Dance Floor

    You can also drop them a line at their MySpace page.

    Check out the Far*East Movement at their website.

  • Infatueighties #62: “King of Pain”

    For those who are actually following this and wonder where #63 went, it’s “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley, which I already discussed at length here. Let’s move on to one of the only artists viewed as being as pretentious as Mr. Henley. Yes, folks, that would be Gordon Sumner, who you know better as Sting. Sting, along with Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, was a member of The Police, who recorded the song you find at #62: “King of Pain”. See how it all ties together?

    Anyway, there are quite a few Police songs that I wanted to include in here (Side 1 of “Zenyatta Mondatta” might be my favorite side of an album ever), but “King of Pain” gets the nod because it’s the song that best marries the highbrow intelligence of many of Sting’s lyrics to a simple yet effective pop tune. How effective? I was 7 when this record came out and I loved it despite the fact that I had no bloody idea what The Police were talking about. “There’s a blind man looking for a shadown of doubt”? Whaaa???

    Anyway, “Synchronicity” is one of only a handful of albums (I can only think of six) with more than one song on this list, a testament to the legacy The Police left in only five short years of making records. Sting saving the rainforests may have muted their impact somewhat, but these were the records that turned me on to rock music. So let’s temporarily forget about the pompous ass-iness, the tantric sex and the cash-grabbing reunion tour (although they were quite good when I saw them) and remember how damn good this song is.