The Sandra 80's/90's Rate: Done, winner crowned!
- Thread starter WoW73
- Start date
Okay but "Close to Seven" is properly great? The most pleasant surprise for me so far, pretty much no clunkers and such a consistent album. I love how this time it's more focused on the instrumental and production, both of which are easily the most interesting/experimental ones, while still having a fair share of catchy hooks. The atmosphere in general is lovely - seems like this one is for the chill, alt-leaning girlies.
Honestly, I'd say it's up there with her debut album.
Honestly, I'd say it's up there with her debut album.
I definitely agree. Surprised to read some people consider it a downgrade compared to what came before because it really is great, just a bit different. Fading Shades is the only one I thought was a bit weaker but even that one is very solid and houses plenty of gems.
And finally.... Spotlight on.... Michael Cretu
As mentioned, the final spotlight will be on the man behind Sandra... her former husband and producer, Michael Cretu.
Michael was born in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to Germany in 1975 to focus on his music career. In the early days, Michael worked for legendary produced Frank Farian, and later released his own material, and started his band Moti Special. The solo single Samurai became a hit in 1985, the year the band Moti Special also had their biggest hit, Cold Days, Hot Nights
Michael met Sandra much earlier, when she was still in the band Arabesque, and he produced her debut solo single, and just about everything she released until her 2002 album, The Wheel Of Time. Sandra was not the only iconic female singer Michael worked with... how about these two, @berserkboi?
But of course, Michael is best known as the man behind Enigma, the new-age music project, that mixed several genres into a successful and commercial sound, scoring huge hits all over the world. Is was very convenient he had a session singer at home at the time!
As mentioned earlier, the man singing on many of Sandra's songs is not Michael, but Hubert Kemmler. But... Hubert is not the man miming the vocals in Sandra's video's, that is Peter Ries, a German songwriter and record producer.... So there are actually THREE men behind Sandra!
As mentioned, the final spotlight will be on the man behind Sandra... her former husband and producer, Michael Cretu.
Michael was born in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to Germany in 1975 to focus on his music career. In the early days, Michael worked for legendary produced Frank Farian, and later released his own material, and started his band Moti Special. The solo single Samurai became a hit in 1985, the year the band Moti Special also had their biggest hit, Cold Days, Hot Nights
Michael met Sandra much earlier, when she was still in the band Arabesque, and he produced her debut solo single, and just about everything she released until her 2002 album, The Wheel Of Time. Sandra was not the only iconic female singer Michael worked with... how about these two, @berserkboi?
But of course, Michael is best known as the man behind Enigma, the new-age music project, that mixed several genres into a successful and commercial sound, scoring huge hits all over the world. Is was very convenient he had a session singer at home at the time!
As mentioned earlier, the man singing on many of Sandra's songs is not Michael, but Hubert Kemmler. But... Hubert is not the man miming the vocals in Sandra's video's, that is Peter Ries, a German songwriter and record producer.... So there are actually THREE men behind Sandra!
My whole life I wrongly assumed that the prominent male backing singer on Sandra's songs was Michael Cretu. This thread is an education!
I learned that Michael isn't doing those vocals in this rate too.
Yeah, "Pump Up the Jam" is probably the most famous example.
Here's a mini spotlight on Sandra's songs that technically belong to this rate but were reasonably excluded. Something I learned yesterday is that she released her debut single back in 1976, when she was 14. Both are in German, the A-side being a disco-schlager bop:
The B-side is a lovely melancholic ballad with gorgeous instrumental:
I'd honestly rate these higher than a lot of the songs in the actual rate oop
(Also, I might need the pre-noon of Thursday in order to properly finalize my votes, hopefully that's fine with the hosts)
The B-side is a lovely melancholic ballad with gorgeous instrumental:
I'd honestly rate these higher than a lot of the songs in the actual rate oop
(Also, I might need the pre-noon of Thursday in order to properly finalize my votes, hopefully that's fine with the hosts)
It's fine as long as you get started on the bops, basically rate immediately after ;)
Voted!
Here are my averages:
The Long Play - 8.719
Mirrors - 8.219
Into a Secret Land - 8.000
Paintings in Yellow - 7.781
Close to Seven - 8.150
Fading Shades - 8.062
Standalone releases - 8.250
Such a consistent discography, what else to say. Surprised that "Into a Secret Land" got one of the lowest averages, I know I prefer it to "Fading Shades" at least.
This rate is rather interesting when it comes to stats. Apart from my 11, I gave no other perfect scores (the next highest in line is a 9.75) and I only gave six scores below 7, justifying the consistency.
I have to properly check but "The Long Play" is very likely the record-holder for the album which received the highest low score from me across all rates I've taken part in (one 8). As for "Into a Secret Land", it is probably my most consistently scores album in rates, with my scores for it ranging between 7 and 9.
I also wrote little blurbs as commentary for each song (they are very "insightful" of course dd)
Looking forward to the results!
Here are my averages:
The Long Play - 8.719
Mirrors - 8.219
Into a Secret Land - 8.000
Paintings in Yellow - 7.781
Close to Seven - 8.150
Fading Shades - 8.062
Standalone releases - 8.250
Such a consistent discography, what else to say. Surprised that "Into a Secret Land" got one of the lowest averages, I know I prefer it to "Fading Shades" at least.
This rate is rather interesting when it comes to stats. Apart from my 11, I gave no other perfect scores (the next highest in line is a 9.75) and I only gave six scores below 7, justifying the consistency.
I have to properly check but "The Long Play" is very likely the record-holder for the album which received the highest low score from me across all rates I've taken part in (one 8). As for "Into a Secret Land", it is probably my most consistently scores album in rates, with my scores for it ranging between 7 and 9.
I also wrote little blurbs as commentary for each song (they are very "insightful" of course dd)
Looking forward to the results!
He was the male vocalist on Return to Innocence by Enigma.