I Say The Same Thing About Cassie This Time That I Said About Her Last Time
I forgot that Cassie's "King Of Hearts" was up for review on the Jukebox, so I ended up writing about it in the comment thread, to the extent that my comment figured out what it was about:
Damn, I missed this. Was wavering between 8 and 9 anyway, which would have taken another five hours out of my life. In the blurb I might have gone into a long incoherent story around the fact that four years ago on a drive with relatives to Mystic Seaport we went through New London and passed the Williams School and I said to incomprehending family members, "You don't know who Cassie is and you most likely will never hear her, but this is where she went to high school." And from that unpromising beginning I continued talking about Cassie, despite only a tiny possibility that they would ever care about her, and despite the certainty that they didn't care about her at that moment. Was then (in my blurb, not the car trip) going to ask if Cassie could be inexplicably alluring even when reduced to little blips, and answer, "Yes." Perhaps would have added an anecdote about the time in Radio On that I countered Phil Dellio's takedown of Clint Eastwood's skill as an actor with a long, eloquent defense of Clint's acting, and Phil praised me highly for how I managed to come up with twenty synonyms for "boring." In any event, I'd rate ten or fifteen Cassie tracks even higher than this, almost all of them unreleased. I think there's maybe one post-first album track I dislike. Favorites are "Summer Charm" and "Turn The Lights Off."
Katherine, if you're interested, the "Boney Joan Rule" is where I definitively fail to explain Cassie's allure. Don't think she's blank, do think she's recessive, think that, as she recedes, the space is filled with massive desire. Doubt that any other singer should even try this. Which doesn't mean there's no other singer who moves me in a Cassie way. I think I've written here that I get the same Cassie feeling from Dev (or for Dev), despite Dev not being recessive at all but rather being a scrappy outgoing little clubrat: the same drifting sexiness permeating her atmosphere.
Before posting on the Jukebox thread, I took the precaution of saving the post, intending to call the post "Cassie post" but the computer informed me that I already had a post by that very name. Further investigation revealed the ghost of comment threads past, specifically this (featuring similar points, the same random number pulled out of the air for superior Cassie songs, etc., and if you look up at the blurbs, identical adjectives). I gave the song, "Must Be Love," an 8. Al gave it a 3:
Except for the score and the line about not being able to emote, I pretty much agree with Al. ("Emote" is the wrong word one way or another. There's a presence that Cassie has that I've never been able to describe, but it's not devoid of feeling. But on the other hand it's not as if there's, like, the passionate part of a song and she turns on the juice.) The track sounds like a sketch, with erasures and drawovers. In this instance I apparently like erasures and drawovers. And maybe the track wouldn't be better without all of Diddy's blundering around, which sets the stage for Cassie's delicately powerful whatever. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she has a say in the arranging of a lot of her stuff, since she's as commandingly/eerily herself when working with the non-Ryan Leslies as she was when limited to him. But there are at least fifteen Cassie tracks I like more than this one. "Turn The Lights Off" would be my favorite. (Lex, I think she comes across fine on that RedOne/Akon thing that horrifies you: her voice is prettied up atypically, but still retains that vulnerable/powerful air of hers. But then, I like RedOne.)
Damn, I missed this. Was wavering between 8 and 9 anyway, which would have taken another five hours out of my life. In the blurb I might have gone into a long incoherent story around the fact that four years ago on a drive with relatives to Mystic Seaport we went through New London and passed the Williams School and I said to incomprehending family members, "You don't know who Cassie is and you most likely will never hear her, but this is where she went to high school." And from that unpromising beginning I continued talking about Cassie, despite only a tiny possibility that they would ever care about her, and despite the certainty that they didn't care about her at that moment. Was then (in my blurb, not the car trip) going to ask if Cassie could be inexplicably alluring even when reduced to little blips, and answer, "Yes." Perhaps would have added an anecdote about the time in Radio On that I countered Phil Dellio's takedown of Clint Eastwood's skill as an actor with a long, eloquent defense of Clint's acting, and Phil praised me highly for how I managed to come up with twenty synonyms for "boring." In any event, I'd rate ten or fifteen Cassie tracks even higher than this, almost all of them unreleased. I think there's maybe one post-first album track I dislike. Favorites are "Summer Charm" and "Turn The Lights Off."
Katherine, if you're interested, the "Boney Joan Rule" is where I definitively fail to explain Cassie's allure. Don't think she's blank, do think she's recessive, think that, as she recedes, the space is filled with massive desire. Doubt that any other singer should even try this. Which doesn't mean there's no other singer who moves me in a Cassie way. I think I've written here that I get the same Cassie feeling from Dev (or for Dev), despite Dev not being recessive at all but rather being a scrappy outgoing little clubrat: the same drifting sexiness permeating her atmosphere.
Before posting on the Jukebox thread, I took the precaution of saving the post, intending to call the post "Cassie post" but the computer informed me that I already had a post by that very name. Further investigation revealed the ghost of comment threads past, specifically this (featuring similar points, the same random number pulled out of the air for superior Cassie songs, etc., and if you look up at the blurbs, identical adjectives). I gave the song, "Must Be Love," an 8. Al gave it a 3:
Except for the score and the line about not being able to emote, I pretty much agree with Al. ("Emote" is the wrong word one way or another. There's a presence that Cassie has that I've never been able to describe, but it's not devoid of feeling. But on the other hand it's not as if there's, like, the passionate part of a song and she turns on the juice.) The track sounds like a sketch, with erasures and drawovers. In this instance I apparently like erasures and drawovers. And maybe the track wouldn't be better without all of Diddy's blundering around, which sets the stage for Cassie's delicately powerful whatever. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she has a say in the arranging of a lot of her stuff, since she's as commandingly/eerily herself when working with the non-Ryan Leslies as she was when limited to him. But there are at least fifteen Cassie tracks I like more than this one. "Turn The Lights Off" would be my favorite. (Lex, I think she comes across fine on that RedOne/Akon thing that horrifies you: her voice is prettied up atypically, but still retains that vulnerable/powerful air of hers. But then, I like RedOne.)
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