Sorry, dear readers, for the dearth of new posts of late. There's a couple reasons for this, and it's not cos I'm too busy, haha. For one, I am traveling far from home with my laptop and thus have a limited source of material to post for you. Secondly, here in New Zealand broadband is allocated in a specific number of gigabytes (or even megabytes), and once you're over your alloted amount it reverts to dial-up speeds. So while I am wwoofing at a farm in Golden Bay (with broadband, unbelievably), I don't want to use up all of my host's bytes uploading (or downloading *sigh*)...we need those to watch Jon Stewart.
I do, however have a couple things hanging out at Megaupload or wherever that for one reason or another I have not yet posted.
So here is one of them!
This is one of my favorite albums from the Eighties. And it is very Eighties. But among the very best new wave albums, imho.
I was first turned on to Cristina via an untitled track on the first "Rodney On The ROQ" compilation, a bitchy cover of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is?. For years I had no idea who did the track, but upon buying this LP when it came out immediately put 2 and 2 together.
Imagine if Lydia Lunch were a debutante (they were actually lablemates at Ze Records for a time). That's pretty much the only way I can describe this.
The album was produced by Don Was who was very hot at the time. Cristina's lyrics are bitchy, aloof and hilarious. There's too many gems to begin quoting here; just download and enjoy. There's also a great cover of Blue Money in which I can see Cristina actually contemplating her blue earnings, much more so than Van Morrison.
This album was re-released a few years ago on CD, but from what I've read it inextricably altered the perfect track order, as well as flubbing the remastering. I never got the reissue so I can't really speak to that; this is ripped from my original heavily played vinyl.
This is one of my all-time Top Ten albums so do not take my recommendation lightly!
Get it HERE
Tracks:
01. Don't Mutilate My Mink
02. Ticket to the Tropics
03. She Can't Say That Anymore
04. Quicksand Lovers
05. Rage and Fascination
06. The Ballad of Immoral Earnings
07. What's A Girl to Do
08. The Lie of Love
09. Blue Money
10. He Dines Out On Death
Oh, and apparently this album was such a dismal flop upon release that the artist/photographer who designed the cover saw fit to copy it exactly for Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm" LP a scant year later. Guess no-one noticed...
