by wildangels

You all know you have one. A song or artist that you like but are too embarrassed to admit it. A guilty pleasure. For the rest of this week, I’ll be talking about some of my guilty pleasures and I hope you guys will post comments about yours. I promise not to laugh if you won’t laugh at me!

Anyway... one of my guilty pleasures is Debbie Gibson. I guess the guilty part of this should be obvious. After all, she’s a teen idol who hasn’t been popular in the mainstream for a long time now. Let’s not even get into the cheese factor of some of her songs and videos... still, I have a soft spot for her and occasionally listen to a song or two.

The reason it’s a pleasure is because of all the memories it brings back. I spent much of the summer of ‘89 hanging out at a community center with some kids that went to a school I was about to start. I ended up hanging out with a fan of hers who played me Out of the Blue. We spent most of the summer listening to that and a couple others.

The first time I made a real recording (as in, actually done somewhere other than my room with a cheap tape recorder), I sang a couple of her songs. It was at a carnival where they had a recording booth set up and let me tell you... I never forgot the thrill I felt when they played my recordings back over the loud speaker. Her music also makes me think of my former best friends who lived next door. We’d spend hours making up dance routines to her songs and singing along with the recordings. It was a really fun and simple time and it’s nice to put one of the songs on once in awhile to kinda go back and reflect on it and where things have gone since.

So, there ya have it- one of my guilty pleasures. Now, it’s your turn! What’s your guilty pleasure and why do you like it? I’d love to hear about it...

by wildangels

I mentioned in a post before that I just got a CD by a singer named Mia. If you remember, I mentioned she had recorded back in the late 80s/90s under her given name Ana. I had no idea she was still in the music business at all until I stumbled across the information. Well, being a major fan of her voice back then, I couldn't help but buy this newer release.

It has a release date of 2003 on it and from what I can tell, it's the only CD she has released since her early recordings. She's not even mentioned on the Univision webiste. There's not even an offical site I can find anywhere, so it appears she disappeared again. Still- this is a worthy release and I wanted to share some of my favorites from it as well as mention some of the better tracks of the english recording I have.

Tentacion (Temptation): This is the title track on the disc and is definitely my favorite one. I can't find the lyrics anywhere, so not quite sure what it's saying but it's a fun track. There's lots of horns in it and Mia (or Ana) sings the hell out of it. The voice is still in top form.

Ahora Te Dejo Yo (This Time, I Leave You): This ballad showcases the versatility in her voice. She goes from a deep, strong vocal in the previous track to a higher, more understated vocal here. From what I can tell (the song was recorded by someone else), the lyrics talk about walking away from a bad relationship.

Tonto Orgulla (Foolish Pride): This track has a bit more of a pop/dance sound and she again manages to tone down the power a little and go for a slighly higher tone. Very strong track.

Villa Miseria (Misery Villa): This is a more pop/rock influenced track that has become one of my favorites. It's extremely catchy and I think this easily could have been a big hit for her.

Let's take a look back now, huh? Back in 1990, Body Language was released. This was when teen pop was still riding high with Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and NKOTB scoring hits. Then known by her  given name, Ana, the 16-year-old worked with Maurice Starr on this project as well as some of her peers. Starr was the guy behind the group NKOTB, so it's no surprise that one of the tracks is a duet with NKOTB leader Jordan Knight. It's call "Angel of Love", but it's not my favorite track. Not even close. Ana sound wonderful, but Jordan... well, let's just say he sounded a lot better next to the questionable vocals of the rest of his group. One of the best tracks on the CD is "What Could I Do to You?" Get your minds out of the gutter, please! In this one, she's trying to figur eout how to make a guy see how the way he is acting is affecting her. A cute track 80s teen pop fans will love is "Everytime We Say Goodbye" and "Friendly". Both songs were written by the then reigning teen queen, Debbie Gibson. The former is an uptempo, flirty love song. The latter is a ballad about having to be seperated from someone you care about

Overall, both discs demonstrate she is a very strong and verstile vocalist who deserves far more recognition that she has gotten so far. On that note, stay tuned. Next time, I'll talk about some CDs I think should have done much better than they did. Til then, "let the music play!"

by wildangels

I'll be posting a picture and more detailed information later on, but I just wanted to mention that I just received a CD called Tentacion by a singer named Mia. If you like latin music and you have not gotten this CD, make sure you do! It's avaialable on Amazon.

The interesting this about this is, this isn't her first attempt at music stardom. She started out singing teen pop in the late 80s/early90s as Ana. Her second release, Body Language, featured a couple minor hits as well as songs written by fellow teen pop star Deborah "Debbie" Gibson. After this CD, she pretty much fell off the face of the earth, music wise. I came across the information she was still recording on Wikipedia. After reading the information on Amazon, I was pretty sure the info was legit and orderd it. Yeah, it's Ana alright. Her voice is almost unchanged from her hey day.

Stay tuned for more later!! And have a great New Year's Eve!