Mandy Moore Discography Rate - Complete! (Stream 'Silver Landings' on March 6th!)

[pop3blow2]

So, just a quick recap of the 'bottom 20' songs as voted by our panel:

first batch:
#84: Amazing Lucky Scarf
#83: Healing Incantation
#82: Singing To The Song Of Life
#81: Stupid Cupid
#80: On The Line
#79: Your Face
#78: Quit Breaking My Heart
#77: Song About Home
#76: Swept Away
#75: From Loving You

last batch
#74: Love You For Always
#73: Help Me
#72: I Like It
#71: Everblue
#70: When Will My Life Begin
#69: Willin'
#68: Umbrella
#67: Can't You Just Adore Her
#66: Let Me Be The One (@Zar-Unity's 11)
#65: Wind In My Hair


And with that,...Here’s some tea about the next 10 songs we lose.

> We will lose TWO more 11's in our next 10 songs.
> One album is safe the next the run....
> One album loses FOUR songs within the next 10 elims. Well.
> Every song has a 7.000 average from this point.

Just a reminder that there is a running scoreboard on page 1 of the rate. I'm trying to keep it up to date & have added a section for 11's as we lose them.

We'll also soon be shifting the elimination badge photos into 2001-2002 era Mandy...

 

[Music Is Life & Death]

Okay, but I kinda agree that I See The Light is the best Tangled song. I had a moment with it a while ago. I'll tell the whole story when it gets eliminated. And I thought the lyrics fit her IRL too, but I didn't wanna say it for fear of dragging. I don't know what I was thinking.

 

[pop3blow2]

"Lock Me In Your Heart" | 7.044



Rated 64th out of 84 total songs

Rated 11th out of 16 from So Real/I Wanna Be With You




Chart info or stats:

The 28th most scrobbled Mandy song on Last.fm



Liner Notes


Written by: Tony Battaglia & Shaun Fisher
Produced by: The Wasabees

Track 5 on So Real: Released: December 7, 1999



"My own parade…" ​

​

"Take me to a place
Where the magic between us becomes real
Take me all the way"

For as much as I drag So Real, it does have its moments. This might actually be one the best ones for me. Granted it’s not my highest rated song from the album, its close... and on most days would be the song from So Real I’d prefer to hear. I don't even mind the the fairly absurd intro rap, where Mandy's name gets rhymed with candy for the second time on the album. (We get it Epic. We really, do.)

While I find a bit of the production by The Wasabees on So Real, ‘meh’ in places, I get what they were going for. They wanted to create this backdrop of pop with a heavy slant on R&B, for Mandy's amazingly versatile voice to dance around. Almost a ‘bubblegum Janet’ album, in a way. I mean, I guess you could argue this was the sonic palette of much of whole pop movement in the late 90's, but I hear those goals more in So Real than some other albums of the era, especially in the trio of song in the middle of the album: Walk Me Home > Lock Me In Your Heart > & Quit Breaking My Heart.

First off, that trio of songs plays as the best mini-stretch on the album for me (@Zar-Unity would include a fourth in there, with Let Me Be The One , obvs.). It’s in that stretch though, where pop Mandy & R&B Mandy actually works for me vocally... & the Janet-lite sonics come together.

‘Lock Me In You Heart’ is probably where the R&B (& even flavors of latin pop) production works best with her voice on the album. There’s a lot of vocals on this song. This is something I am really into in music: the whole 'voice as instrument' thing. It's one reason why the Beach Boys & Carly Rae Jepsen are two of my faves. I love artists that go crazy with how they use vocals & Mandy's first few albums in particular fall into this category for me. Her voice is double & triple tracked through almost the whole song & it sounds fantastic. This was always my favorite song to listen to in headphones from So Real. (For a real Mandy experience listen to 'Lock Me In Your Heart' back-to-back with 'Saturate Me'… preferably in headphones. Whew. You’ll have the tingles. ASMR, wut!? )

What we get with ‘Lock Me In Your Heart’ is probably the best album track on So Real. The Wasabees only had a couple of homeruns on the album, but this one might be the best.You can draw a straight line from this song to self titled Mandy Moore to see how she gets there, probably more so than any other song on So Real/I Wanna Be With You. That's saying something since many consider self-titled her best album.

I can see how this might be considered filler by some, but its a moment for me in fairly basic debut album. This is one of the So Real songs that I think maybe underperformed in the final rate results. It's probably a top 5 or 6 for from that So Real/I Wanna... era.

One last thing... Since we're all big pop fans here, who probably spend a great deal of time on YouTube occasionally, I have to share this with you. While researching versions of 'Lock Me In Your Heart' to include in the rate, I found two of the most GAWD AWFUL quality videos on YouTube I've seen uploaded. I mean the audio quality in the first one was soooo bad it literally almost blew my speakers (because I had them up loud-ish from Spotify before clicking over to YouTube.) I won't link to them here for fear of destroying your eardrums, but they were so laughably horrible, I can't believe they were even uploaded. If you feel so inclined, search 'Lock Me In Your Heart live' on YouTube. Just make sure volume is all the way down first...haha!

It did get me thinking though, what is the worse quality thing you ever sat through/endured on YouTube, simply because 'the fan' in you wouldn't be deterred?

My Score: 8.3​

"Kicking up confetti leaves…"


Sparkle In The Sky
​

@Zar-Unity (8.5)
A dreamy pop tune! Amazing production as usual and Mandy's vocals captivate your ears on this! I used to listen to this one at night with my eyes closed laying down while getting ready for bed. Perfect song to fall asleep to. Once again, this song like the others have a strong addicting romantic love theme and it really works for her as she always sings with such sincerity and passion. Since at this point this song is starting to sound a bit like filler and a repeat of her previous songs, my rating will be a bit lower for this one. Still a solid relaxing tune with very nice musical production though. (I almost outscored you on a So Real track. That would've been something!)

@Robsolete (8.5) , @ladylloyd (10)

Corner of your eye​

@Remorque (7.5): One of the more generic tracks on the album, but I can't help but love it for her voice alone. I love it when she ups the key for the bridge and I'm kinda smitten with that almost-non-event of a key change for the last chorus. (So true. Her voice is kinda hypnotic in this one.)

@RUNAWAY (7.5): This song is cute (The live versions on YouTube are not! Haha!)

@ohnostalgia (7.5): There’s a surprising number of Latin influences on So Real, isn’t there? (Yeah, the producers really did try inject as many trends as possible into album. It works best on this song, to me.)

@Music Is Life (7.5): This is fine. Unessential, but I like the guitar.

Spoiler

@unnameable (6.5): pleasantly captures the softer side of 00s R&B, but not particularly special. (It does skate close to the 'filler line', I suppose, but I just really enjoy this one.)

@VivaForever (6):
Cute, though Mandy sounds really young on it, and the lyrics don’t help with that. But like a lot of early Mandy, it's just generic late ‘90s teen balladry. (Yeah, she sounds super young a few times on the record, though I highly prefer those time to when she goes 'all Britney' with her voice.)

@Sprockrooster (7), @tylerc904 (7), @Robert (7), @chris4862 (6.5), @vague (7)

Still Undiscovered​

@LKane (5), @CasuallyCrazed (5)

@Florencia. (4.5):
Another cute but unremarkable song, and full of clichés. (But did you like the guitar?)

For Your Viewing & Listening Pleasure




While the live versions I found were shit quality, as mentioned above, I found no fewer than 5 Anime montages set to 'Lock Me In Your Heart' on YouTube. UhhhMazzzzing.

​

 

[Zar-Unity]

Everblue, I like it, help me, Let me be the one and your face should have "never" been out so early in this rate! Still, there are a bunch of great songs still in, and I mean a lot! You can thank Mandy for that.

Fun fact, my highest voted album as a whole ended up actually being another album
than the album that my 11 came from.
--
Okay, I totally wasn't expecting a new post from @pop3blow2 right after
I posted the above from earlier but let's talk about Lock me in your heart.
Thank you Pop3blow2 for the new post!

I think several of us can agree that Lock me in your heart was
kind of a filler track but the best thing about the song is Mandy's amazing
voice, which someone said is kind of hypnotic on this song. Indeed it is!
In fact I think that lock me in your heart is one of Mandy's best songs
ever to showcase her amazing voice!
Not really surprised that it's out already but I am kind of surprised by
Pop3blow2 's high rating and very positive words on the song!

Don't worry though, you will never score higher than me on any So real track.
So real is deep in my pop heart. Well not really that deep but we'll see.

I love the notion of "Almost a ‘bubblegum Janet". See this is one way
to see why So real was so unique and special for Mandy, even though
on the surface it can appear to be just a heavy trend setter R&B smash.

"For a real Mandy experience listen to 'Lock Me In Your Heart' back-to-back
with 'Saturate Me'… preferably in headphones." I'm down for this!
Headphones are always my go-to option and preferred choice for Mandy
or any of my other favorite pop artists.

For bad audio quality videos of live performances on youtube, I have a remedy.
I make what I call "live music videos" sometimes where I insert the studio
audio track over the live video, if the video picture is good enough quality
and then I sync it up right with the music. Those are fun to do! Mandy
could definitely use some of those! (And Billie Piper why were at it!)

I wonder if The Wasabees ever had any of their own albums, or if they were
just a record company writing team. Probably the latter. They did seem like a
worthy writing team for pop music!

I'm wondering why @LKane keeps ranking So real tracks so low.
I guess So real isn't "real enough" for you. I'd be really interested
to see what album you ended up rating the highest. My guess is the
opposite to So real, so like Wild hope.

 

[tylerc]

Looking at the recap, On the Line is really the only song I love that's been axed.

 

[LKane]

I'm wondering why @LKane keeps ranking So real tracks so low.
I guess So real isn't "real enough" for you. I'd be really interested
to see what album you ended up rating the highest. My guess is the
opposite to So real, so like Wild hope.

I'm so sorry for being so cruel with "So Real". I have to say those tracks are definitely growers. Actually I gave lower scores to the "I wanna be with you" EP. The reason is that I feel like those early tracks didn't age well. What I like about Mandy, besides being so pretty and with a great and unique personality, is the power of her voice. I think she has one of the most precious but underrated female voices. I love so much her latest record and I think that's the way to go because for me the arrangements and melodies embraces her voice so perfectly. I also adore Coverage!... Wilde Hope not that much. But you can't really hear the beauty of her voice in those silly teenage tracks.

 

[VivaForever]

Looking at the recap, On the Line is really the only song I love that's been axed.

Same.

 

[Zar-Unity]

But you can't really hear the beauty of her voice in those silly teenage tracks.

So you prefer later alternative Mandy. Nothing
wrong with that, lots of great music to give praise to..

Props to actually calling I wanna be with a EP, because that's
what it is.

 

[Robert]

Lock Me In Your Heart is another great song. Leave So Real/I Wanna Be With You alone for a bit! Although saying that it is one of the slightly weaker tracks on an amazing album.

 

[pop3blow2]

"Love Shot" | 7.053



Rated 63rd out of 84 total songs

Rated 10th out of 16 from So Real/I Wanna Be With You




Chart info or stats:

The 46th most scrobbled Mandy song on Last.fm



Liner Notes


Written by: Carl Sturken & Evan Rogers
Produced by: Carl Sturken & Evan Rogers

Track 10 on So Real: Released: December 7, 1999
Also B-Side to the Australian release of the 'I Wanna Be With You' single: April 11, 2000



"My own parade…" ​

​

"Here we are now face to face
Gonna make it very clear
'Cause I don't have time to waste
If your heart is insincere"

Sometimes you’re just not the right artist for a song. That was always my initial thought about Mandy & 'Love Shot'. I realize this is completely subjective & based on some the scores here many would disagree with me, but we’ve all heard pop songs where your thought process is ‘This isn't horrible, but maybe this song fits better with someone else.’ This was pretty much my immediate reaction to 'Love Shot'. It’s not a completely awful song, it’s just missing something to me.

In fact, I really wonder if this song would’ve been better served in the hands of group. I just imagine Spice-Girls-eque alternating lead vocals with I hear this song. It’s just missing some punch & attitude to me, for a song called ‘Love Shot’. Mandy was just too sweet sounding for certain songs on So Real. This is one.

Adding to the case that 'Love Shot' is a bit out of place on the album, is the fact it was one of a few songs written/produced not involving The Wassabees & other regular teams on So Real. Instead, 'Love Shot' was seemingly randomly contributed by superstar writing & production team Carl Sturken & Evan Rogers. Sturken & Rogers have contributed songs & productions to tons of artists since the late 80’s, including but not limited to:

- Rihanna
- Kelly Clarkson
- Emma Bunton
- Jessica Simpson
- *NSync
- Boyzone
- Eternal
- & soooo many more. (I mean, look at this list...)

Even giving the song the benefit of the doubt that Mandy wasn’t the best fit, 'Love Shot' still sounds like a leftover song in their canon to me. I wonder at what stage in the So Real album process was commissioned? Was Epic hoping for a surefire hit from Sturken & Rogers & then moved on after this? This would’ve been a filler track on anyone's album, as far as I can tell.

That said, while ‘Love Shot’ isn’t a fave of mine on the album, I can’t help but wonder what a whole album of songs written/produced by them would sounded like for Mandy. Their track record in general was pretty good. I wonder if a whole album by them was out of the budget at Epic, so they just got them for one track? That kind of collaborative stuff is interesting to me.

Criticisms aside, I do like Mandy’s vocal on the song. The little ‘na na na’ adlib is divine, if all to brief. In fact, it just highlights how I don’t much care for many of the production choices in general on the song & really find the whole track pretty forgettable.

The word filler gets thrown around a lot with So Real & it appears that most people have a different definition of that word. For me, this song falls squarely into the filler category, which is disappointing for the level of talent involved.

My Score: 6.6​

"Kicking up confetti leaves…"


Sparkle In The Sky
​

@Robert (9)

@vague (8.75): Simply put, this great.

Spoiler

@ohnostalgia (8.75):
I know, I know, I know: I keep harping on the awful vocal production on So Real. But in this case I’m doing it because Love Shot had potential to be a 10/10 banger with better choices. (Yeah, this song just misses for me. Some of that is def Mandy's voice, which I think is just a tad too sweet for it.)

@VivaForever (8):
I didn’t remember this. (Probably because I barely ever played So Real since I had I Wanna Be with You.) I like it, actually. Bit of a bop. ( "barely ever played So Real since I had I Wanna Be with You." - this is the correct answer. Haha!)

@Music Is Life (10):
Oof, another total 90s BOP. Love the production, and the chorus is so freaking catchy. Her voice is pretty good on this one too. (I love your enthusiasm for this. Love Shit is a fun song, despite my issues with it.)

@Zar-Unity (8.2):
This song starts off with some nice synth strings, then dives right into an old school beat. When Mandy's vocals come in the good vibe that you're looking for has been delivered and then you just sit back and groove. Perhaps by this point in the album, this song could feel a bit like some more album filler, but this is certainly still a solid R&B pop tune! Yes this song may not stand out as big as some of the songs earlier on So real but you can definitely still enjoy its presence in full. Songs like this proved just how talented Mandy was then doing R&B and dance pop. She had the voice for it, the attitude and the passion. (I always thinks something bigger is coming after those synth strings. Just a bit of misfire for me, but it has a few moments!)

@unnameable (8):
she makes this style of flirty dance/R&B pop really work well. (I suppose parts of this song work better than other moments on So Real, but bring on I Wanna Be With You.)

Corner of your eye​

@LKane (6.4):
Mandy has more potential than this type of songs. Now we know that. (I mean, a few points were made here.)

@Remorque (7): I enjoy this one, but I don't think I've ever actively sought it out. The production's very reminiscent of the late 90s with that thumping synthy bass and Mandy's vocals are great. Very layered. (Yeah, good point about the layers, though I wish a few moments were built upon better.)

@Sprockrooster (6), @tylerc904 (6), @Robsolete (7), @ladylloyd (6), @RUNAWAY (7)

Still Undiscovered
​

@chris4862 (5), @CasuallyCrazed (5.5)

@Florencia. (4): Cute & boring (Yeah & yeah.)

For Your Viewing & Listening Pleasure




Love Shot (extended version)




Other (better) Sturken & Rogers bops

Eternal: Power Of A Woman



Lara Fabian: I Am Who I Am



Rihanna: Pon de Replay

​

 

[VivaForever]

Lara Fabian: I Am Who I Am

 

[LKane]

Your comment is totally true. I can imagine this song being delivered by a girl group, maybe with Sugababes it would have had a totally different vibe.

 

[Robert]

Ahem, I said LEAVE SO REAL ALONE!

Love Shot was a bside in the UK and was another track I thought should have made it onto the album over here. One of the great uptempos from the debut era, I really enjoy it. Hence being the highest scorer!

 

[pop3blow2]

A new reveal post is in draft. It's kind of a big one with some big concepts being thrown around in my write-up... so I just making sure it reads right before publishing it. (later today/tomorrow).

I will let you know that So Real gets a break, though @Robert!

 

[pop3blow2]

"Anticipation" | 7.061



Rated 62nd out of 84 total songs

Rated 11th out of 12 from Coverage




Chart info or stats:

The 65th most scrobbled Mandy song on Last.fm
The 10th most scrobbled song from Coverage on Last.fm



Liner Notes


Written by: Carly Simon
Produced by: John Fields

Track 10 on Coverage: Released: October 21, 2003



"My own parade…" ​

​

"Stay right here,
Because these are the good old days"

...when Mandy sings these words on Coverage, they are more than just Carly Simon’s lyrics; they are a request of you the listener & a literal mission statement for the whole project. I’m not completely exaggerating here.

'Anticipation' was the second song Mandy & John Fields recorded for Coverage. Mandy said the song was a favorite of her’s growing up, before she really even knew who sang it. As such, it immediately sprang to her mind when wanting to do a covers album. She said she’s personally connected to this song. It was something I understood at the time & is even easier to see why now. It's really a song she was tailor-made to tackle.

There’s quite a bit of synchronicity in my life the moment & it’s been spilling over a lot into my Popjustice world. While it is possible I tend to oversee symbolism in things, I can’t help but be fascinated by how all this backpedaling through my love & history of Mandy is now overlapping with so many other things on Popjustice. This is how she has always been for me, so it's kinda perfect in many ways.

The first song we lost from Coverage was Joni related, & conincided with some discussion about Joni rated covers & other threads before we even lost it. All of this is coinciding with other rates where Mandy related things are springing up.... and now, just a couple of days after @Lila's write up about Carly Simon in her Girls Like Us rate, we lose 'Anticipation', here. Whew.

Even though I knew this elimination was coming, I couldn’t help myself and already waxed pretty poetic about my love of Carly over in that thread. You should take a look there & highly consider participating in @Lila’s rate, if you’re on the fence. It's gonna be a good one.

In short, Cary Simon is an all-time fave for me. Over the years as I see more & more strains of her in so much other music I love, I become even more interested in her. I mentioned few of those artists in the aforementioned message in the Girls Like Us rate thread the other day (Mandy, Marit, Vanessa, Maisie, etc.), but its more than just the music I see her influence in modern singer/songwriter based pop. Its also in the attitude & sensibilities she helped pioneer.

See, Carly was from the that early 70’s crop on amazing female singer/songwriters who had the raw talent that showcased the main merits on which they could & should succeed in the music business. Carly though, was daring in the regard that she also had no problem with pursuing & being a celebrity... even a *gasp* pop star. She admits to being a bit of a ham who liked the attention of the camera. In many ways, her style & artistry was laying the groundwork for artists like Taylor Swift & so many others.

Carly also had no problem in being sexy, which is something that wasn’t generally associated with ‘lite rock’ of the 70’s. Now, her sexiness was never over-the-top, but she did use it to help project an air confidence about herself. This was probably both done with the aim for a sense of empowerment Carly wanted to retain for herself & also perhaps inspire in others.

I’ll touch on this more later, but we can’t talk about Mandy without the subject of sexuality coming up a bit. Because Mandy came out with a crop of pop stars known for pushing the boundaries of sexuality in their music, Mandy became an anomaly for not doing so. This was an intentional image choice by Mandy, who was being pushed to ‘reveal more’. The irony is that Mandy was pushing the boundaries for sexuality in music, by not doing the norm. Much like Carly, she felt like she could project sexiness, confidence, & sensuality while remaining clothed. Also, much like Carly, maybe there was another level to Mandy’s choice. She simply said she wasn’t confident enough in her skin to be like Britney or Christina. Coverage is such a super interesting cross-section of so much pop history & ideas I find fascinating. (This part of the write-up reminds me of a great piece Kate Nash wrote for The Independent many years back. I printed it out & had her sign when I met her after a show. She was elated I had read it & had brought it to be signed... & it now hangs in my office.)

So, what of Mandy's version of the song? Here’s where I might lose many people in my love of Coverage & thats ok (I realize I likely live alone on my little island with Coverage as my favorite all-time pop album!) As much as I flat-out love Carly Simon, I like Mandy’s version of 'Anticipation' more. In fact, of the 12 songs on Coverage, an album full of songs all by original artists I like to love at varying levels, I like Mandy’s version more on 10 of the songs.

To be completely fair, the seven songs with original male artists, didn’t have shot once I heard Mandy’s version. I just love female vocals more than male & adore Mandy’s voice. So they didn't have a chance! On 'Anticipation', John Fields mix of strings & slide guitars adds a whole other sonic dimension to the song for Mandy’s voice to dance around ( & the song is a really another of those sonic indicators of the direction some of Mandy’s music music take in the coming years.) It's really just an all-around more pleasing version of the song, to me.

While Mandy’s voice is key to everything on Coverage, a lot of my love for the album comes from John Fields' production choices. The amped up production adds a surprising oomph to many songs that seemed fairly low-key in their original states. I’m sure this sentence is horrifying to some purists, but the whole point of good cover is to draw attention to it ... many times within the context of a whole new era in music. Mandy’s versions of many songs on the the album sound like fireworks, while the originals were sparklers. This makes sense to me, as the whole album is a celebration of how much she loves these songs. Some would argue that some of the songs didn’t need fireworks. That’s fair, but not the side I fall into for this celebration.

The glossy sheen of many of Mandy’s versions on the album just always felt right to me, though. (Here come a couple of doozy 80's references, so pull up a seat!) I mean, to many people she lived in magazines & Coverage felt like the girl from the pages coming to life. Almost a reverse 'Take On Me' moment. Mandy's perceived glossiness is a product of the era/her image & in many ways, John Fields subversively tapped into that to create musical backdrop for Mandy that is the sonic equivalent of a Care Bear Stare. She's holding up a mirror to the whole industry of image & saying, 'Not only will I not cave to your demands of me as a sex symbol, I won't even sing music from this era.' Coverage is Mandy’s call to arms against all who have doubted her or thought they had her pigeonholed. The album is her way of stating to the world ‘this is who I really am. Take it or leave it.' Bold, ambitious, & truly independent. If that's the case, 'Anticipation' is one of the album's tentpole songs. As such, I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed to be losing this already.

My Score: 9.1​

"Kicking up confetti leaves…"


Sparkle In The Sky
​

@ohnostalgia (9):
This is some orchestral tinged country, which is probably my fave flavour of country. (It really is quite divine. A nine from you here makes me feel like at least I'm not always in complete blind stan mode for the album.)

@Music Is Life (10):
Loved this mid-tempo, especially her voice on it. The end was a great moment of vocal power. (Gawd, I know right. The ending here is a moment.)

@Robsolete (8.5), @ladylloyd (9), @vague (8.25)


@Zar-Unity (8.5):
I know the artist who did this song and I can't say that I really can connect with her music. Once again, this song marks another time on Mandy's Coverage album where I feel somewhat disconnected. This is a bit country sounding, which I know Mandy touches on again in her next two albums. I can't say that I'm really that much of a fan of Country pop Mandy. She sounds quite amazing on this song but the way she sings along with the songs main melody doesn't really appeal to me too much, sorry. But since this is still such a well performed cover my rating will still reflect that and remain kind of high. I probably could enjoy this slowly with more time but I'm usually not in the mood to hear her songs like this as much. With that said, I find that Mandy's country pop singing style became way more accessible and fun to hear on her Wild hope album and onward so it is not really that much of a issue then. (I actually agree with you on some of this. I'm a pretty big Carly fan & wouldn't rank this in my top 10 or 15 by her. To me, its a solid song that Mandy takes to the next level, though... and probably goes as hard as you can with it.)

Corner of your eye​

@VivaForever (7.5):
I’d have preferred to hear my favorite Carly Simon song, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, especially considering the album’s general M.O. of including lesser-known songs by popular acts (One Way or Another notwithstanding). But Mandy carries the song off really well, and the production is ace. Better than the original, sorry bout it. (Anticipation is one of several songs on Coverage, where the production blows the original away.)

@LKane (6):
Am I hearing country here? It’s kind of nice actually. (Not just country: Magical Mandy Country!)

@unnameable (7):
likeable but not amazing. (Maybe my new Twitter bio.)

@Sprockrooster (6), @tylerc904 (7), @chris4862 (7), @Florencia. (7.5), @RUNAWAY (7.5),
@Remorque (6.5)

Still Undiscovered
​

@Robert (1), @CasuallyCrazed (1.75)

For Your Viewing & Listening Pleasure





Carly Simon's Original Version



@VivaForever's Carly Simon pick. It's a doozy.



Just an amazing song & performance. Wigs were lost.



Oh, yeah. Obligatory Disney connection! (Carly wrote the soundtrack to Piglet's Big Movie)




Remember to read more about Carly in @Lila 's Girls Like Us rate & participate if you can! Lots of good music & inspiration to be had. ​

 

[Lila]

"Anticipation" | 7.061



Rated 62nd out of 84 total songs

Rated 11th out of 12 from Coverage




Chart info or stats:

The 65th most scrobbled Mandy song on Last.fm
The 10th most scrobbled song from Coverage on Last.fm



Liner Notes


Written by: Carly Simon
Produced by: John Fields

Track 10 on Coverage: Released: October 21, 2003



"My own parade…" ​

​

"Stay right here,
Because these are the good old days"

...when Mandy sings these words on Coverage, they are more than just Carly Simon’s lyrics; they are a request of you the listener & a literal mission statement for the whole project. I’m not completely exaggerating here.

'Anticipation' was the second song Mandy & John Fields recorded for Coverage. Mandy said the song was a favorite of her’s growing up, before she really even knew who sang it. As such, it immediately sprang to her mind when wanting to do a covers album. She said she’s personally connected to this song. It was something I understood at the time & is even easier to see why now. It's really a song she was tailor-made to tackle.

There’s quite a bit of synchronicity in my life the moment & it’s been spilling over a lot into my Popjustice world. While it is possible I tend to oversee symbolism in things, I can’t help but be fascinated by how all this backpedaling through my love & history of Mandy is now overlapping with so many other things on Popjustice. This is how she has always been for me, so it's kinda perfect in many ways.

The first song we lost from Coverage was Joni related, & conincided with some discussion about Joni rated covers & other threads before we even lost it. All of this is coinciding with other rates where Mandy related things are springing up.... and now, just a couple of days after @Lila's write up about Carly Simon in her Girls Like Us rate, we lose 'Anticipation', here. Whew.

Even though I knew this elimination was coming, I couldn’t help myself and already waxed pretty poetic about my love of Carly over in that thread. You should take a look there & highly consider participating in @Lila’s rate, if you’re on the fence. It's gonna be a good one.

In short, Cary Simon is an all-time fave for me. Over the years as I see more & more strains of her in so much other music I love, I become even more interested in her. I mentioned few of those artists in the aforementioned message in the Girls Like Us rate thread the other day (Mandy, Marit, Vanessa, Maisie, etc.), but its more than just the music I see her influence in modern singer/songwriter based pop. Its also in the attitude & sensibilities she helped pioneer.

See, Carly was from the that early 70’s crop on amazing female singer/songwriters who had the raw talent that showcased the main merits on which they could & should succeed in the music business. Carly though, was daring in the regard that she also had no problem with pursuing & being a celebrity... even a *gasp* pop star. She admits to being a bit of a ham who liked the attention of the camera. In many ways, her style & artistry was laying the groundwork for artists like Taylor Swift & so many others.

Carly also had no problem in being sexy, which is something that wasn’t generally associated with ‘lite rock’ of the 70’s. Now, her sexiness was never over-the-top, but she did use it to help project an air confidence about herself. This was probably both done with the aim for a sense of empowerment Carly wanted to retain for herself & also perhaps inspire in others.

I’ll touch on this more later, but we can’t talk about Mandy without the subject of sexuality coming up a bit. Because Mandy came out with a crop of pop stars known for pushing the boundaries of sexuality in their music, Mandy became an anomaly for not doing so. This was an intentional image choice by Mandy, who was being pushed to ‘reveal more’. The irony is that Mandy was pushing the boundaries for sexuality in music, by not doing the norm. Much like Carly, she felt like she could project sexiness, confidence, & sensuality while remaining clothed. Also, much like Carly, maybe there was another level to Mandy’s choice. She simply said she wasn’t confident enough in her skin to be like Britney or Christina. Coverage is such a super interesting cross-section of so much pop history & ideas I find fascinating. (This part of the write-up reminds me of a great piece Kate Nash wrote for The Independent many years back. I printed it out & had her sign when I met her after a show. She was elated I had read it & had brought it to be signed... & it now hangs in my office.)

So, what of Mandy's version of the song? Here’s where I might lose many people in my love of Coverage & thats ok (I realize I likely live alone on my little island with Coverage as my favorite all-time pop album!) As much as I flat-out love Carly Simon, I like Mandy’s version of 'Anticipation' more. In fact, of the 12 songs on Coverage, an album full of songs all by original artists I like to love at varying levels, I like Mandy’s version more on 10 of the songs.

To be completely fair, the seven songs with original male artists, didn’t have shot once I heard Mandy’s version. I just love female vocals more than male & adore Mandy’s voice. So they didn't have a chance! On 'Anticipation', John Fields mix of strings & slide guitars adds a whole other sonic dimension to the song for Mandy’s voice to dance around ( & the song is a really another of those sonic indicators of the direction some of Mandy’s music music take in the coming years.) It's really just an all-around more pleasing version of the song, to me.

While Mandy’s voice is key to everything on Coverage, a lot of my love for the album comes from John Fields' production choices. The amped up production adds a surprising oomph to many songs that seemed fairly low-key in their original states, I’m sure this sentence is horrifying to some purists, but the whole point of good cover is to draw attention to it ... many times within the context of a whole new era in music. Mandy’s versions of many songs on the the album sound like fireworks, while the originals were sparklers. This makes sense to me, as the whole album is a celebration of how much she loves these songs. Some would argue that some of the songs didn’t need fireworks. That’s fair, but not the side I fall into for this celebration.

The glossy sheen of many of Mandy’s versions on the album just always felt right to me, though. (Here come a couple of doozy 80's references, so pull up a seat!) I mean, to many people she lived in magazines & Coverage felt like the girl from the pages coming to life. Almost a reverse 'Take On Me' moment. Mandy's perceived glossiness is a product of the era/her image & in many ways, John Fields subversively tapped into that to create musical backdrop for Mandy that is the sonic equivalent of a Care Bear Stare. She's holding up a mirror to the whole industry of image & saying, 'Not only will I not cave to your demands of me as a sex symbol, I won't even sing music from this era.' Coverage is Mandy’s call to arms against all who have doubted her or thought they had her pigeonholed. The album is her way of stating to the world ‘this is who I really am. Take it or leave it.' Bold, ambitious, & truly independent. If that's the case, 'Anticipation' is one of the album's tentpole songs. As such, I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed to be losing this already.

My Score: 9.1​

"Kicking up confetti leaves…"


Sparkle In The Sky
​

@ohnostalgia (9):
This is some orchestral tinged country, which is probably my fave flavour of country. (It really is quite divine. A nine from you here makes me feel like at least I'm not always in complete blind stan mode for the album.)

@Music Is Life (10):
Loved this mid-tempo, especially her voice on it. The end was a great moment of vocal power. (Gawd, I know right. The ending here is a moment.)

@Robsolete (8.5), @ladylloyd (9), @vague (8.25)


@Zar-Unity (8.5):
I know the artist who did this song and I can't say that I really can connect with her music. Once again, this song marks another time on Mandy's Coverage album where I feel somewhat disconnected. This is a bit country sounding, which I know Mandy touches on again in her next two albums. I can't say that I'm really that much of a fan of Country pop Mandy. She sounds quite amazing on this song but the way she sings along with the songs main melody doesn't really appeal to me too much, sorry. But since this is still such a well performed cover my rating will still reflect that and remain kind of high. I probably could enjoy this slowly with more time but I'm usually not in the mood to hear her songs like this as much. With that said, I find that Mandy's country pop singing style became way more accessible and fun to hear on her Wild hope album and onward so it is not really that much of a issue then. (I actually agree with you on some of this. I'm a pretty big Carly fan & wouldn't rank this in my top 10 or 15 by her. To me, its a solid song that Mandy takes to the next level, though... and probably goes as hard as you can with it.)

Corner of your eye​

@VivaForever (7.5):
I’d have preferred to hear my favorite Carly Simon song, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, especially considering the album’s general M.O. of including lesser-known songs by popular acts (One Way or Another notwithstanding). But Mandy carries the song off really well, and the production is ace. Better than the original, sorry bout it. (Anticipation is one of several songs on Coverage, where the production blows the original away.)

@LKane (6):
Am I hearing country here? It’s kind of nice actually. (Not just country: Magical Mandy Country!)

@unnameable (7):
likeable but not amazing. (Maybe my new Twitter bio.)

@Sprockrooster (6), @tylerc904 (7), @chris4862 (7), @Florencia. (7.5), @RUNAWAY (7.5),
@Remorque (6.5)

Still Undiscovered
​

@Robert (1), @CasuallyCrazed (1.75)

For Your Viewing & Listening Pleasure





Carly Simon's Original Version



@VivaForever's Carly Simon pick. It's a doozy.



Just an amazing song & performance. Wigs were lost.



Oh, yeah. Obligatory Disney connection! (Carly wrote the soundtrack to Piglet's Big Movie)




Remember to read more about Carly in @Lila 's Girls Like Us rate & participate if you can! Lots of good music & inspiration to be had. ​

Amazing, as always. And thank you so much for the promo!

 

[ohnostalgia]

Country tinged pop phobia is so 2016.

 

[Robert]

Amazing write up as ever. Even though I was the lowest scorer it’s still great to read differing opinions and so well written too. I’m just glad So Real/I WannaBe With You got a break.

 

[VivaForever]

How did I never realize the tinges of country in Anticipation ddddddd. Of course I like it.

Honestly, I probably underscored it a little. Her voice on the "these are the good old days" part is absolutely the best part of the song and possibly my favorite moment on the album.

Have a Little Faith in Me and Moonshadow outlasting this is... not the tea.

 

[LKane]

I'm surprised by how much you know about Mandy @pop3blow2 ! Just listened to the original version of Anticipation and it is lovely. Kind of funny, but the voice changes the mood. Each version is different, but good in its own way.