What’s that a second review in three days? Amazing what I can accomplish with even a modicum of free time!
Disc 1546 is…. From the Hip
Artist: Josie Cotton
Year of Release: 1984
What’s up with the Cover? Josie flashes a smile that says, “Of course I know this haircut is fantastic.” Yes, it is, Josie, and so is the rest of you.
How I Came To Know It: Earlier this year Sheila introduced me to the 1983 movie “Valley Girl,” which features Josie Cotton both in the film (she performs at the high school prom) and on a couple of songs on the soundtrack. Sheila loved the soundtrack, but it is devilishly hard to find, so I was exploring options to build one myself. In doing so, I landed on Cotton’s Bandcamp site, and realized I liked a lot of her music.
And yes, I eventually found the Valley Girl soundtrack, but we’ll save that story for when I roll the review.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Josie Cotton albums in my collection. They’re all very different, making it hard to compare, but since I’ve created this category, I’ll dive in and say “From the Hip” is…third. It isn’t bad, but one of them had to be last.
Ratings: 3 stars
Josie Cotton’s “From the Hip” is a love letter to a wide gamut of eighties pop sounds, and while it lacks focus, all of those musical side quests still add up to an enjoyable musical ride.
Cotton can’t fully decide what she wants to be, but that’s part of her charm. She’s a little New Wave, a little rockabilly and even a little Madonna. It all works, and while the record lacks emotional gravitas, it makes up for it in good old fashioned energetic fun.
Things start with a cover of seventies band Looking Glass’ “Jimmy Loves Maryann”. The Looking Glass version of this song is all laid back hippy soul and horn flourishes, but Josie Cotton is having exactly none of that. She jumps the song out in front of the beat, infusing the song with frenetic energy. Even the horns get replaced with bright-sounding organ riffs. After listening to the Cotton version a few times, my first encounter with the original was soporific.
Cotton uses the organ to good effect throughout the record, capturing the futurist energy of her New Wave sensibilities at every turn. Songs like “Licence to Dance” and “No Use Crying” sound like they fell out of a sixties sci fi movie. In fact, Cotton has a penchant for making things sound like a futuristic action adventure. It is no surprise that a couple decades later she would treat us to a bunch of movie theme covers on 2007’s “Invasion of the B-Girls”. Like Valley Girl, this will also be the subject of a future review.
Cotton is a natural with New Wave, but she also embraces rockabilly in a way that shows true and devoted affection. “Straight Talk” is a cross between a turbo-charged square dance and a beat that would be at home in a sixties spy caper. This is one of four songs Cotton writes, and she shows a great talent for a clever and well-timed turn of phrase, coupled with a bouncy beat.
The best song on the record is “Gina” which has that same rockabilly/sixties pop crossover that is Cotton’s sweet spot. It is written by Bobby and Larson Paine, who are also responsible for Cotton’s two hit songs from the Valley Girl soundtrack (“Johnny Are you Queer” and “He Could be the One”. “Gina” is just as solid, a song so timeless I spent half an hour trying to find the sixties original before realizing Cotton’s is the original.
While Cotton can also do the straight eighties pop thing, these are the album’s weaker songs. “Come With Me” in particular sounds like a bad Madonna song and while “Life After Love” has that Cotton swing to it – and even hand snaps – it lacks the element of whimsy that is present on the stronger tunes.
Every now and then the songs don’t feel like full compositions, either. Even “School Is In” which has a great pop hook and a sing-along chorus gets tired quickly, despite being only 2:33 in length.
However, overall the energy of this record alone will hold your attention, and there are plenty of gems. Apart from Valley Girl, Cotton never broke big, and lesser-known records like “From the Hip” underscores for me how wrong that is. I’m glad I found her, and even more glad I was able to purchase her music through Bandcamp, where the artist gets the lion’s share of the revenue. Thank you, Josie!
Best tracks: Jimmy Loves Maryann, Straight Talk, Gina, Way Out West
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