Cyndi Lauper - At Last

Unfortunately, sometimes a record turns out to be only as good as you expected it'd be likely to be (though you buy or, in this case, borrow it anyway, just on the off chance); this is one such. Thirteen songs' worth of Lauper interpreting pop classics and standards - the ones I was really curious to hear being "Walk On By", "Unchained Melody" and "My Baby Just Cares For Me" - and, well, it's just not particularly good. Quite brave to put her voice right up the front of the mix, with the instruments being mixed down low and relatively sparse in the first place anyway, and there's a bit of a torchy effect going (especially with the piano ballads, which is most of 'em), but, while I don't know what the consensus on her voice is, I find it a bit piercing, especially when she reaches for the high notes (I actually winced during my first listen to her "Walk On By"). A couple of the songs half work, amidst the thickets - but thickets most of it is. Oh well.