It’s been a while, but this one’s a rull good one.
Lollygagging ’round the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn last weekend after seeing Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart‘s Heart & Soul Tour (which was simultaneously fantastic and amazing, thank you for asking), my boyfriend and I happened across a series of vinyls against the wall of an apartment, lazily stacked next to a trashcan.
And while I’m not personally one for bed bugs, he had no problem diving in headfirst to see if there were any gems hidden in the mix. (I’ve trained him well.)
Cue the find: Freestyle pop artist Alisha‘s self-titled 1985 debut album off of Vanguard Records.
Immediately struck by the incredible cover art featuring an ’80’s-tastic Alisha chilling in bed, hanging on the telephone and rocking a double-length pearl necklace, I knew I had to have it. So I snatched and ran, knowing full well there was no way the owner could have possibly meant to toss away such a classic.
G-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s.
Alisha, as I soon learned, is a Freestyle pop artist from the ’80’s. She actually had an incredible run on the charts with her debut album, selling over 2 million copies and charting three singles in the Top 10 of the US Hot Dance Billboard Charts.
She would go on to release two more albums (1987’s Nightwalkin’ and 1990’s Bounce Back) and chart a few more singles, including 1999’s “You Wanna Be A Star (Superstar)” for the Molly Shannon classic, Superstar.
As for the tunes featured on Alisha, let’s be honest here: Every song basically sounds like a canned cut from Madonna. Sure, it’s a back-handed compliment…but a damn fine compliment nonetheless! The album is a mix of fierce, cutting freestyle beats worthy of a seriously sweaty workout session on the dance floor.
Click above to watch Alisha–looking something like the love child between Peaches and Barbra Streisand (okay, so maybe just the nose) that’s been slapped across the face by Christina Aguilera‘s “Moulin Rouge” make-up palette–as she struts it out to “Baby Talk,” her first and only #1 on the US Hot Dance Chart (and the best song Love & Kisses-era Dannii Minogue never recorded.)
Yet of all the gems on the album, from “All Night Passion” to “Stargazing,” my hands-down favorite of the bunch is none other than “Too Turned On.” (Too obvious from the title alone?)
The dance floor filler finds Alisha telling her man to stand back and take cover–’cause she’s just too damn turned on! Between infectious hand claps, saxophone synthesizer solos, and even a dazzling xylophone rhythm break in between the chorus and verses–it’s an utterly delicious jam that must be experienced to be believed.
“‘Cause I’m too turned on, can’t hold back / All heated up and can’t cool down,” Alisha cries out. Calling all modern pop artistes: Care to give this one a polishing off please? Dannii, baby?
Whether it’s her homegrown NYC appeal, inimitable stage presence, or the fact that she actually took time to thank “the guys at the Shell station” in her own album credits, Alisha is one MuuMuse Approved mamacita.
I’M TOO TURNED ON!
