Cyndi Lauper

She’s So Unusual: A 30^th Anniversary Celebration

Legacy Recordings/Sony Entertainment

It’s hard to believe that it was three decades ago when Cyndi Lauper hit the scene. While labeled a bubbly pop sensation at the time, here lyrics rang even more true in the decades that followed. She’s So Unusual was Lauper’s debut and to date has sold over 16 million albums worldwide. The album features the smash hits “She Bop,” “All Through the Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and “Time After Time.” The imagery may be distinctly eighties but the music has stood the test of time.

This special edition includes two discs. The first features the entire album (one of the few from the eighties to play perfectly from start to finish) as well as a remix of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” from Yolanda Be Cool and remixes of “Time After Time” from Nervo and Bent Collective. Disc two features demo tracks, rehearsal footage, a couple of remixes, a live track of “Witness,” and the non-LP B-side “Right Track Wrong Train.”

I’m not going to spend a lot of time here on disc one. She’s So Unusual was a great album when it was released and it still is. The sentiment remains unchanged, be yourself, don’t be selfish, and love recklessly. “Money Changes Everything,” “Time After Time,” and “When You Were Mine” are still the highlights for me and “She Bop” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” still make me smile. The latter also makes me miss Capt. Lou Albano and the Rock N’ Wrestling movement that I loved as a kid.

The remixes on this set are interesting but, unless you really enjoy collecting remixes, they aren’t much to write home about. This is kind of a niche thing and, admittedly, I’m not much into it. That said, the Nervo remix of “Time After Time” is more memorable than the others.

For fans of the album and Ms. Lauper, it’s the demos here that will bring you to the table. Vocally, the show a more vulnerable side of Lauper that is well hidden on her albums. Her voice cracks and strains at times, but it’s also a lot more soulful. The best example of this is the early guitar demo for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Part of me wishes they would have recorded it this way. It wouldn’t have fit into the early eighties pop scene but the guitar lead lack really gives the song a whole different feel. “Money Changes Everything” simply sounds stripped down, but again, thirty years later it feels like it fits my life a little tighter this way than it did with all the hairspray and synthesizers. The B-side “Right Track Wrong Train” is a gem as well, boasting an almost Blondie style new wave/punk rock flavor.

Overall, if you don’t have this album then you should have this version. If you already have it (on vinyl, eight-track, cassette, and CD more than likely) then the extras make it totally worth purchasing it again.