Monday, March 25, 2013

My Music Monday

I'm guessing people know Paula Cole for two things and two things only: her two hits, "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" and what would become her weekly meal ticket for years, the theme song to Dawson's Crack Creek, "I Don't Want to Wait".

To be fair, the album that both of those songs originated from, This Fire, was a very solid disk - those two songs were just way overplayed and oddly enough, not even the strongest material.

That year (1998?), Cole was a catalyst for Lilith Fair.  Allegedly, Sarah McLachlan wanted Cole to open for her  tour and no promoter would go for some women-on-women action, so to speak.  Thus the three year estrogenfest that was Lilith.

Cole's debut album, Harbinger, was ok and had a few good songs on it, but This Fire was her highlight.  For that album, Cole was nominated for a number of awards, one being Producer of the Year - making her the first solo woman even ever nominated.

Oddly enough, my Cole selection doesn't come from that disk, but to her follow-up one, Amen.

I wasn't thrilled with Amen (apparently the record-buying public was not either), save one song: "I Believe in Love".

While she is fine in the song, it is the swelling strings of the pseudo '70s Love Unlimited Orchestra that just totally make it for me.  Hell, I didn't even like the LUO back then (or now), but how she works that style into the song just kind of goes.

Cole is a good multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter.  Her video skills are another matter.  When she's on stage in the video, I'm not sure what song she's moving to but it don't go with her tune.  But again, it's not supposed to be about the video though sometimes the medium makes it hard to separate the two.

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