a lighter note

[jfb]

If you haven't had the misfortune of talking to me in person in the last couple of months, you may have missed out on my obsession with Mandy Moore, or more accurately with her recent record Coverage. I'm not gonna go on too long about it here, but here are a few data points:

• It started when, illegally and skeptically, I downloaded four tracks... and listened to them over and over again on the drive to Minnesota.
• I bought the album in Minneapolis to try to understand why it was so annoying and why I liked it so much.
• By this point I have so much to say about that that I can't fit it into a LiveJournal post, and it just stays locked up in my brain except when I can trap an audience.
• It hasn't left my car CD player for a month.

Now I'm getting to the point where I may have heard these songs enough for now, but I still really like her singing on the record, so I'm kind of craving the next Mandy Moore album.

As it happens, this is not the only Mandy Moore CD I own. Intrigued by some of her press and by the 99-cent price tag, I picked up I Wanna Be With You from the bargain bin at Disc Diggers last fall. (I miss you, Davis Square!) But you know how it is when you're traveling, things get disorganized, and I didn't actually get around to listening to it until last night. I won't be doing that again. She was younger then, her voice was thinner, and more importantly the songs are in some cases so trite they made me physically ill. So much for that.

Anyway, tonight at Tower I bought two CDs: Cyndi Lauper's At Last, the other cover album I listened to four illegal MP3s from on that drive in December--they were neck and neck for a while, but Lauper's record was too tasteful to really set in, I think. And Mindy Smith's One Moment More, because... well... because her name reminded me of Mandy Moore's, okay?

Good news, though--it's pretty good!

Comments

[chrismwage.livejournal.com]

The Mandy Moore album is the one with the cover of an XTC song, correct?

I think I downloaded that. I found it.. weird.

Not bad, just weird.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I like that one, although it's not my favorite on the album. I should say I don't know the original--or, I didn't know the original, but after listening to the cover for a while I found a copy of the original. I didn't like it much. It felt kind of mopey. But then anything would next to the eternally upbeat Ms. Moore.

[michaelpop.livejournal.com]

i wish i could reject you totally for liking mandy moore, but i can't talk since i really like jewel's last one.

i love cyndi lauper so much. i really need to get that cover disc.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Dude, there are so many better reasons to reject me.

[copperqueen.livejournal.com]

What do you think about the brown hair?

I think as a blonde she's cute, and as a brunette she's striking.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Well, mind you, I haven't spent nearly as much time looking at her as listening to her, but... yeah, in the photos I've seen of her as a blonde she looks kind of unexceptional, just another teenager. But with brown hair she's much more distinctive.

On the other hand this might not be just hair color but also the fact that she's a few years older and knows a little more about who she is, and that comes through in her self-presentation.

Whoa! Looking for pictures to see if I believe this, I ran across a report that she's been dropped from her record label! Apparently she has other offers. I wonder how that'll work out.