http://www.brightlightx2.com/cinema2CINEMATOGRAPHY II, at a glance ...
'Choreography' was inspired by scenes from my favourite films and written to be the soundtrack to my own ridiculous colourful film, so as a sister EP,
'Cinematography' is a set of covers of some of my favourite songs from cinema. Following on from recording the first
'Cinematography' EP, I wanted to look back at some of the songs that inspired me that for me really defined a moment of real connection with a film or the artist that performed the song.
'Run With Us' was never a hit, even though in my mind it was a huge song. I loved Saturday mornings because that was when
'The Raccoons' was aired on UK TV and it was one of my favourite shows. Mainly for the title sequence, and for this incredible song. For me, it stands up to any of the huge 80s power ballads, and I love its unifying and post-apocalyptic feeling chorus.
In the first few years of living in London, a friend of mine performance artist
Owen Glyndwr Parry directed a show my friend
Heather O'Shea wrote that I was part of. One of the things we did to prepare for it was watch
'Bagdad Cafe' and it stuck with me ever since, particularly this haunting and beautiful song.
I mean, there's no way I can cover a song from
'Mannequin' but not this one is there? While
Alisha's 'Do You Dream About Me' soundtracked their dance scene, this
Starship classic
'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' is really what defined the film for me, and the era, really. I asked my friend and incredible artist
Bridget Barkan to sing it with me, as she often sings with me on stage, and really, she's very hard to rival.
While
'Reality Bites' might be a little dated now, the
Lisa Loeb song
'Stay (I Missed You)' is still something of wonder. No chorus, no repeated verse structure - in essence missing everything a "pop song" relies on, but it won the heart of the world as a huge international hit. The final section of the song has lyrics that really hit me hard, too. An amazing piece of writing.
Fine,
'Into The Groove' is incredible. Fine,
'Who's That Girl' was a bigger hit, but
Madonna's 'Causing A Commotion' is for me the coolest song of the bunch. She's added so many timeless songs to film soundtracks, and maybe it's because it's the slight underdog, this one really does it for me. I just think "I've got the moves / you've got the motion" is SUCH a cool lyric.
Finally,
'New World' by
Bj?rk is a song that has never left me. Most of the focus for the film
'Dancer In The Dark' is on the key song
'I've Seen It All' - another truly heartbreaking song - but
'New World' is such an overlooked piece of genius writing. Played as the film's credits roll, it's a really gorgeous outro to the saddest film I've ever watched.
Bj?rk really outdid herself on the soundtrack to the film, and I'm always surprised that this song hasn't had the praise it deserves.