Published on Feb 14, 1999
There are a whole slew of albums in the Pierce Memorial Archive
that I bought for some reason or another that seemed like a good
one at the time. Now, as I walk through the aisles, I wonder just
why I bought them in the first place.
Take Debbie Gibson. When she was at the pinnacle of her fame, I
was in high school, happily banging my head to all things metal. We
macho men wouldn’t have been caught dead even looking at one of her
albums at Sound Warehouse, much less owning one – we were just too
cool for that.
So how do I explain having an album like her 1989 sophomore
effort
Electric Youth in my collection? Better still, how do I
explain at the 10-year reunion later this year that there are some
songs on it that I enjoy?
Gibson had rocketed to fame with her debut effort
Out Of The Blue, containing syrupy-sweet but mostly harmless
dance-pop mall rock. With her second release, she starts to inject
a little more maturity into the music, but the end result is still
the same.
I’ll get the major complaint out of the way first: I can
understand the use of synthesized drums on such an album, but do
you have to rely on them for almost the
whole fribbin’ album? Only one track uses live drums – and
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell that without reading the liner
notes, almost like I was conditioned to hear the electronic
spurts.
Gibson does move into the world of ballads well on
Electric Youth through the track “Lost In Your Eyes” – but
the drum sequencing does ruin the mood. (Not that it was used in
this case, but that it just wasn’t structured to fit the song.) And
while this is a decent enough effort, it wasn’t strong enough to
really push Gibson into that direction with her music.
But for the most part,
Electric Youth is really harmless fun for the teeny-bopper
crowd. It’s non-threatening enough for the parents to listen to and
enjoy, and it’s poppy enough to keep Gibson’s fans happy. Tracks
like “Love In Disguise,” “Helplessly In Love” (in which I swear I
can hear a mandolin, even though I don’t see a credit for one) and
the title track all capture the playfulness of Gibson’s music and
the carefree feeling of youth.
Maybe that’s the appeal I find in Gibson’s music. Instead of
worrying about how you’re going to meet all the bills for the
month, you hear Gibson singing about someone she’s fallen in love
with but can’t be with, and you can’t help but to sympathize with
her. You don’t have to be female to know the feelings of unrequited
love or giddiness of youth – and that’s what sucks the older
listener in.
Is
Electric Youth a masterpiece? No, but it’s a decent enough
effort to warrant some attention from the listener. Besides, the
time between mallrat pop and Marilyn Manson is too short as it
is.