My thoughts on the album. Keep in mind this is based on the “deluxe edition” being sold on iTunes, which contains two bonus tracks and two bonus remixes.
It’s inevitable that a lot of people are going to compare this to Madonna’s Hard Candy album, since they came out within weeks of each other and both women have careers going back to roughly the same time in the 1980s. Even then, they were both very different artists, and these two albums are major examples of why. Hard Candy is all sheen and shiny wrapper, calculating and mercenary. That doesn’t mean it’s a horrible album (it’s a solid 6 out of 10), but it means that it seems more like a career move than an artistic statement. Bring Ya To The Brink, however, is vibrant, organic, and alive with passion. The songs are about more than just dancing. Cyndi’s heart is in each one of them, and even when she DOES sing about going out to dance, you know she really means it and isn’t just trying to make a catchy song.
Cyndi has always dealt in dance/pop and always dabbled in what technology can do. She even had Junior Vasquez produce one of her albums. This is the dance album Cyndi’s truest fans always wished she would make: full of energy and drive, but also full of emotion and sincerity. Cyndi’s voice is as pure as ever, and her spirit as brilliant. Producers like Basement Jaxx, Richard Morel, Axwell, and Kleerup nicely compliment her soaring voice through arrangements that are never too busy, never too sparse, but always just right for the song.
Standout tracks include the anthemic “Same Ol’ Story”, the bouncing “Into The Nightlife”, the graceful “Raging Storm”, the undeniable “Give It Up”, and the beautiful “Rain On Me”. Even the tracks that don’t always connect as immediately—“Lyfe”, “Rocking Chair”—are still good songs that happen to just not be as good as the rest of the album.
And at any rate, they’re WAY better than…say…“Candy Shop” or “Spanish Lesson.”
8 out of 10
