GENIUS "CRAP" ALBUMS : EUROPE - THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

I really start to like this section of my zine, you know.
Ever met someone who likes Europe?
Yes, I know you do (and I know lots of those myself) but I mean, people who are actually into serious music.
Were Europe serious then? Of course not, they were a laugh...in fact I hated them back ten but me getting older I just see the genius behind it.
Europe actually started out as a prog rockband but as no one wanted to buy any stuff from this Swedish band they decided to put synths into their music...with the well know intro of "The final countdown" that made it one of the anthems of the 80's and once covered by Laibach in a superb way.
Their album was a laugh too with one of the most silly covers I ever saw and still so great, I mean you got here four mannequinboys who were looking like the toughest scumbags ever...
This whole album contained the other hits (even if they were minor ones like "Rock the night", "Carrie" or "Cherokee"). Absolute laugh is "Love chaser" in where they use that Final Countdown-synth to make a ballad with... Brilliant, in a way...

GENIUS "CRAP" ALBUMS CYNDI LAUPER -SHE'S SO UNUSUAL

In the category "I wanna loose all my credibility" I choose for this one from Cyndi Lauper which is a rather strange choice if you ask me.
When I was a young kid (ages ago) I used to hated that American chick with her orange hair, it made me turn off my TV.
What do you want?
"Girls just want to have fun" was played every hour on MTV which is in contrast what we're getting now : bloody soaps about fucking machos who wants to pimp up their car. Where is the M in MTV?
Oh get back to Mrs Lauper. Some songs on this are genius, the crappy reggaething from "Witness" for instance or the absolutely brilliant "She bop".
The Miami Vice-sounding synths from "I'll kiss you" and yes you pretend being Don Johnson driving away in your yellow Ferrari...
Even hated ballads when I was young so you can guess what I thought when "Time after time" came on the radio! Turn that bloody thing of!!!
One of the 80's albums that made the 80's the 80's I guess.
Perfect pop or the Gwen Stefani without the bollocks.
Soon after came the excellent "True Colors" and then it was over, but then again the 80's were over too...

GENIUS "CRAP"ALBUMS STEPHANIE-BESOIN

Am I f***’ mad? I guess I am but I wanna be f*** honest too so I decided to f*** up all my credibility (if I should ever have one) and start a new section about “albums that kill me but which are considered to be crap”.
Let’s kick off with “Besoin” by Stephanie.
Mind you, I am sure she could never sing and that this great princess was just in the right company of some producers who might have thought “wow, we have a princess who is willing to make some music”.
When writing this it makes you wonder why they never could convince Lady Di doing this, and let’s thank God producers stayed out of our Belgian Royal House!
Serious musiclovers (I’m not serious as I reject being serious) will laugh their ass off seeing me glorifying the music of madame Stephanie (and yes, as a teen I wasn’t only in her music) but in 2010 I still think “Besoin” is one of the nicest popalbums ever.
It was somewhere overruled by her lovelife as in these days everybody wanted to be on her side but in the end she was just another princess missing a real fairy tale in her life.
To gain some extra money (in that time such things were possible) they decided to come up with a French and an English version.
It’s cheesy French pop that has the spirit of typical French 80’s pop that was overruled by one Mr Serge Gainsbourg and that type of music was perfect for its time even if it was the kind of music that was glorified by people who were wearing LaCoste or Millet-jackets but I guess these guys won’t cry in 2010 on tracks like “Fleurs Du Mal”, I will and maybe Stephanie too.
“Flash” and “Ouragan” still are one of the greatest 80’s popsingles ever (so check out You Tube).