A Cornucopia of Pop Music Goodness

Things that make me happy:  lollipops, backrubs, the wind in my hair, and a resurgence of Eighties and Nineties pop icons.  So you can imagine the bliss I’ve experienced this week here at Brown Tweed Manor as my pal Internet has continued to drop vintage pop music stories one right after the other.

First off, I got wind of an impending reunion of 90’s alt-Irish-rockers the Cranberries from reading this Paste magazine interview with front-lady Dolores O’Riordon.  Now I’ve been a Cranberries fan since seeing them at a small Atlanta club before Everybody Is Doing It So Why Can’t We? was released in the US, so this news gave me a warm feeling inside.  That feeling quickly turned cold when, after reading further into the interview, I realized that Dolores O’Riordon must be like 80 years old or something.  She refers to being able to send songs to her bandmates through “the email” and confesses that she’s “ancient.”  But on the bright side, she’s one of the hottest senior citizens I’ve seen in a while.

The next curveball the interweb threw at me was the news that Noel Gallagher quit Oasis this week.  Noel offered a short, terse apology on the band’s website after stiffing thousands of fans in Paris right before their show, claiming that he couldn’t work with brother Liam “a day longer.”  OK, you got me, this really doesn’t qualify as news since the Gallagher brothers have split up and made up about a hundred times.  What is at least comment-worthy is the fact that Noel later claimed that the split had something to do with “verbal and violent intimidation” presumably from his brother.  What?  I know the brothers Gallagher have a rep for being bad boys and all, but could you really get intimidated by the guy that sang ditties like “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova?”  Let’s hope Noel doesn’t meet up with Pat Boone or Neil Diamond in a dark alley anytime soon.

Just as soon as I thought it couldn’t get any better, I learn that the Backstreet Boys are reuniting and set to release their first new album in a decade…wait…uh, two years.  Holy crap, these guys are still making records?  I thought they broke up after the famed 1999 Christmas album.  You mean they’ve made 3 albums since then?  The fruity one made a TV show and the big guy ended up on Broadway?  Didn’t one of them date Janet Jackson?  Oh, that was a different group?  Then who are the Backstreet Boys?  Well, nevermind.

The goodness kept rolling in with the news that Mariah Carey has added to her repertoire of 80’s cover songs by tackling the classic Foriegner tune “I Want to Know What Love Is” on her forthcoming album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Add this to Carey’s impressive list of remakes like Journey’s “Open Arms”, the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”, Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ On the Heartache”, and the Badfinger-penned “Without You,” among others.  In other MC-related news, the diva will be releasing a new perfume called “Forever” around the same time as her new album drops.  Much like her new single, the new fragrance is considered a remake of more established scents like “Muskrat Sphincter,” “Curdled Milk in Vomit,” and “Anne Heche’s Armpits on a Hot Day.”  Here’s to the glorious gift of reinvention.

In closing, don’t forget to keep an eye on our new Facebook fan page and our music page at Last.fm.  You won’t find any of the music I wrote about today there (thank goodness), but you will find a full Mariah-free library of great tunes that you can listen to anytime.  We’ll feature music from this site there as well.  Later!