SWIRL 360-Ask Anybody (1998)

This band as a cool name, doesn't it? I'm curious how the two twin brothers who make up this band came up with it. I'm visualizing everything from the green spiral logo on a Xbox 360 package to a chocolate-and-vanilla swirl ice cream cone (I've been craving one for ages) to those popular 360° spinning techniques that you see pro skateboarders and snowboarders performing on television. "Ask Anybody" is SWIRL 360's debut album, and is one of two SWIRL 360 albums that was requested from me via e-mail. SWIRL 360 has a dreamy mellow pop sound that's bounded by a semi-heavy, driving rock n' roll undertone, which makes them very appealing and quite different than other pop bands. I already had three favorite tunes before I got halfway through: "There", "Heaven Is What You Make It" and "Don't Shake My World". But when I started playing "Rewind" and the beautiful melody, "Slow (Be There)", I had to move them to the top of the list:

1. Candy In The Sun
2. Hey Now Now
3. There
4. Stick Around
5. Heaven Is What You Make It
6. Don't Shake My World
7. Rewind
8. I'll Take My Chances
9. Ask Anybody
10. Love Should Be A Crime
11. Slow (Be There)
12. Summer Of Love
13. Forget You Too

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LIVING COLOUR-Vivid (1988)

Sirius Satellite Radio has a lot of different music channels that cater to just about everybody's taste. I had all but forgotten about this funk/rock n' roll band about two or three hears ago until I heard one of their biggest hits, "Glamour Boys", on 'The Big 80s', one of my favorite Sirius channels (I think they call it '80s on 8' now). I had borrowed LIVING COLOUR's debut album, "Vivid", from my buddy Matt and told him I'd give it back once I was done ripping it--that was like five months ago! But he's not complaining. I think most people who have this album would agree that "Cult Of Personality" is LIVING COLOUR's most memorable hit. I love the MTV video, too--just checked it out again on Youtube for old time's sake--and now I have this sudden urge to look up some other 80's MTV videos as well:

1. Cult Of Personality
2. I Want To Know
3. Middle Man
4. Desperate People
5. Open Letter (To A Landlord)
6. Funny Vibe
7. Memories Can't Wait
8. Broken Hearts
9. Glamour Boys
10. What's Your Favorite Color? [Theme Song]
11. Which Way To America?

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BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE - The Anthology (1993)

I had a couple of songs by this legendary Canadian rock band playing on my iPod sometime earlier this year--"Takin' Care Of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet". But because I currently only have a 2-gigabyte Nano (I think I'm going to upgrade to a 4-gigabyte Nano in the future) and, at the time, my playlist was favoring about 150 songs between just the BACKSTREET BOYS, BANANARAMA, Babyface, BAD ENGLISH and BAD BOYS BLUE alone, I didn't include anything else. By the time I became familiarized with BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE, they had already released about ten albums (give or take), since they had been singing together since the early 70's. I was indecisive about whether or not I wanted to go back and check out all of their albums, so I decided on just getting this double-disc compilation highlighting the band's first twenty years of music. For convenience purposes (and to save on downloading time), I've created two separate links for each CD:

CD #1

1. The Letter
2. I Think You Better Slow Down/Slow Down Boogie
3. Hold Back The Water
4. Blue Collar
5. Gimme Your Money Please
6. Stayed Awake All Night [Unreleased Version]
7. Thank You For The Feelin'
8. Takin' Care Of Business
9. Give It Time
10. Welcome Home
11. Let It Ride
12. Free Wheelin' [Quad Mix]
13. Sledgehammer
14. Blue Moanin]

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CD #2

1. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
2. Not Fragile [Quad Mix]
3. Rock Is My Life, And This Is My Song [Quad Mix]
4. Roll On Down The Highway
5. Four Wheel Drive
6. Hey You
7. Flat Broke Love [Quad Mix]
8. Don't Let The Blues Get You Down
9. Find Out About Love
10. It's Over
11. Take It Like A Man
12. Lookin' Out For #1
13. Down To The Line
14. Don't Get Yourself In Trouble [Live Version]
15. Shotgun Rider
16. I'm In Love
17. Heartaches

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MÖTLEY CRÜE-Girls, Girls, Girls (1987)

I didn't expect to jump from a band like ESCAPE CLUB to MÖTLEY CRÜE, but I started to get into a bit of a harder rockin' mood shortly after listening to "Wild Wild West". And as I make this post, it's about 5 o'clock in the morning, I've been up all night, and I'm kinda wired anyways. "Girls, Girls, Girls" is something I borrowed from my buddy Matt's personal CD collection about five months ago after I heard him playing the title track on the stereo in his condo. And he turned it off as soon as he invited me in (he was afraid he was disturbing his next-door neighbors). At least I think it was "Girls, Girls, Girls" (it's my favorite on this album). Or it could've been another song altogether. All I know it was something with a lot of yelling. I like "Bad Boy Boogie", too; it's got some funny lyrics. But "You're All I Need", I think, is one of the surprise hits from this album, and it's one of the better rock ballads I've treated myself to in quite some time:

1. Wild Side
2. Girls, Girls, Girls
3. Dancing On Glass
4. Bad Boy Boogie
5. Nona
6. Five Years Dead
7. All In The Name Of...
8. Sumthin' For Nuthin'
9. You're All I Need
10. Jailhouse Rock [LIVE]

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ESCAPE CLUB-Wild Wild West (1988)

I'm on a bit of an 80's rewind for a minute. It was inevitable, because my last upload of ESCAPE CLUB's "Dollars & Sex" album got me thinking about "Wild Wild West" again, so I decided to pull it out of my collection, dust it off, and have a good listen to it while I'm making this post. "Wild Wild West" is one of the definitive rock songs of the 80's and appears on so many 80's compilation CDs that I've started to lose count! It's been a really long time since I've heard the other nine tracks, but playing songs like "Jealousy", "Shake For The Sheik", and "The Longest Day" again (I like the horn salute at the beginning, the saxophone/guitar riff combination near the middle and the funky bass line that plays throughout) reminded me that this album still has some good ole jams on it:

1. Wild Wild West
2. Jealousy
3. Shake For The Sheik
4. Walking Through Walls
5. The Longest Day
6. Who Do You Love?
7. Staring At The Sun
8. Only The Rain
9. Goodbye Joey Rae
10. Working For The Fatman

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ESCAPE CLUB-Dollars & Sex (1991)

Pulling out a new laptop I bought a few months ago and firing it up is something I've been considering while I try to pinpoint the off-and-on issues I'm having with my current one. Ripping CD's used to be a snap; lately, it's been a chore. I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere. And now a new problem--sometimes my laptop just wants to freeze up unexpectedly. But then mysteriously, as if someone waved a magic wand, the problems seem to have vanished.....or at least been quarantined for the time being. Meanwhile, I was finally able to rip ESCAPE CLUB's second album the other night. This one comes via a request in the Nexus Com-Link, and I'm glad I got it up now despite all of the technical difficulties. ESCAPE CLUB is one of those fun rock bands with a pop sound that I tend to miss after I haven't heard them in a long time. They sorta disappeared after the 80's were through, even though they tried to make a comeback and did release one album in the New Millennium. Looking back on this album and replaying some of the other songs for old time's sake, "I'll Be There" shouldn't have been ESCAPE CLUB's final hit to make the music charts:

1. The Edge Of Your Bed
2. Call It Poison
3. So Fashionable
4. I'll Be There
5. Shout The Walls Down
6. This City
7. Blast Off To Heaven
8. Freedom
9. Sugar Man
10. Come Alive

*****BONUS TRACK*****

11. I'll Be There [4Tuneboy Remix]

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MIAMI SOUND MACHINE-Primitive Love (1985)

Yes, another one of my all-time favorite Gloria Estefan albums! And the very first one I ever listened to! Some of Gloria's most unforgettable songs appear here--the spectacular dance hits "Bad Boy" and "Conga", and the beautiful mid-tempo ballad "Words Get In The Way". And more about "Conga".....about a couple of years ago, I'd finally mastered its lyrics without 'cheating' and looking them up online. I'd heard "Conga" literally hundreds of times in the past and always tried to sing along with it, but I'd always fail, because it was hard keeping up with the rapid-fire pace in which Gloria effortlessly sings the words (it really is a mouthful!). I'm listening to it now as I type up this post and I can sing along just fine without stumbling over my own words! Oh, and I've thrown in a killer techno remix of "Conga", too--you'll love it! And I like the other fun little songs on this album--"Body To Body", "Movies", "Mucho Money", "Falling In Love (Uh-Oh)". You probably will never get to hear them played on the radio, but simple tunes like these only add to my satisfaction:

1. Body To Body
2. Primitive Love
3. Words Get In The Way
4. Bad Boy
5. Falling In Love (Uh-Oh)
6. Conga
7. Mucho Money
8. You Made A Fool Of Me
9. Movies
10. Surrender Paradise

*****BONUS TRACKS*****

11. Conga [Dance Mix]
12. Bad Boy [Dance Mix]
13. Body To Body [Dance Mix]
14. Primitive Love [Dance Mix]
15. Conga [DJ Zatta Electro Tribal Remix]

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MIAMI SOUND MACHINE-Eyes Of Innocence (1985)

I'm going back a couple of decades in time with this one! The MIAMI SOUND MACHINE is the band where Gloria commenced her rise to fame, although the band was essentially Gloria all by herself, and "Eyes Of Innocence" is even billed as a Gloria Estefan album. So, one could say that this was her actual debut album, although technically speaking, her solo debut album would be 1989's "Cuts Both Ways". I didn't listen to "Eyes Of Innocence" (or even heard of it, for that matter) until the late 90's, which was about the time I had started my quest to relive music from the 80's. I recall my initial reaction when I started listening to these songs---I froze for a moment and was a little confused, because I'd been so used to the Latin pop rhythms featured her later albums; "Eyes of Innocence", I discovered, had more of a rock n' roll feel to it. I guess that's what happens sometimes when checking out an artist's discography in reverse chronological order. "Dr. Beat", with its catchy 'Won't You Help Me Doctor Beat? Doc-Doc-Doc-Doc-Doctor Beat' lyrics, will always be my favorite tune from this album:

1. Dr. Beat
2. Prisoner Of Love
3. OK
4. Love Me
5. Orange Express
6. I Need A Man
7. Eyes Of Innocence
8. When Someone Comes Into Your Life
9. I Need Your Love
10. Do You Want To Dance?

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Gloria Estefan-Destiny (1996)

Sunlight shines through an open window and casts its glare into a peaceful room, signifying the break of dawn of a new day. Such is the observation that I make on this album's cover. And it's about 6 a.m. as I write this post, so it's a dawn of a new day for me as well. "Destiny" is a nice romantic album; besides a couple of her signature dance songs, it's mainly a collection of ballads that sounds similar to its 1994 English predecessor, "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me". "Destiny" is also the one that Gloria released in the 90's that I somehow overlooked because I can remember only two songs: "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)" (I love that one) and "Show Me To The Way Back To Your Heart". The final two tracks put a smile on my face as I was putting this one up--especially the inspiring and uplifting "Reach", which reminds me of "Coming Out Of The Dark", one of Gloria's best songs ever that appeared on her "Into The Light" album from 1991:

1. Destiny
2. I'm Not Giving You Up
3. Steal Your Heart
4. The Heart Never Learns
5. You'll Be Mine
6. Path Of The Right Love
7. Show Me To The Way Back To Your Heart
8. Along Came You (A Song For Emily)
9. Higher
10. I Know You Too Well
11. Reach

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Gloria Estefan-Mi Tierra (1993)

I so love the cover to Gloria's first Spanish-language album! Sophistication, elegance, class, glamor, style.....I could think of about a thousand different words to describe it. I guess why people say that pictures are worth a thousand words. As with novels, magazines, movies and everything else, you can't always judge a music album by its front artwork. But sometimes, those thousand words describe the content of the music that an album contains right to the tee. I haven't listened to much of Gloria's Spanish albums up until now, but it was fun hearing her sing on "Mi Tierra" ("My Land"). And by the way, speaking of words and such, I've recently figured out how to get the Spanish accents, tildes, and upside-down exclamation points and question marks to appear when I'm posting the track listings to the albums that I post--simple copy and paste! Who would've thought it could be so easy?

1. Con Los Años Que Me Quedan
2. Mi Tierra
3. Ayer
4. Mi Buen Amor
5. Tus Ojos
6. No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga
7. ¡Sí Señor!...
8. Volverás
9. Montuno
10. Hablemos El Mismo Idioma
11. Hablas De Mi
12. Tradición

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