The Sound of the 6′s
“I don’t like this groove.
Try and give me somethin’ I can croon to.
Catch my drift?”
My favorite album of the past year (and practically ever) is a mix cd I mastered myself using all 8 songs off Vanity 6′s only release, paired with the 4 best songs off Apollonia 6′s only release.
The two different bands share everything – sonic puppeteer-ing courtesy of early 80s Prince, lack of slacks or skirts in any and all marketing materials, Brenda’s bitching and Susan’s sex-pot-iness, and lyrics so louche it’s odd they were legal.
What the two bands do not share is lead singers, but the unique identities of their rosters’ main members matters little since the pair of trios were served up as little more than lingerie mannequins grinding around in dry and dirty dancehalls.
At surface level it sounds like the soundtrack to a feminist’s nightmare perhaps, but behind the tinted glass of the girls’ baby blue limousine, its clear Prince knew which gender really pulled the strings.
The ditz ‘n glitz disguised gritty male-baiting/bashing set to simple, slinky synth-pop. Perfect Prince-ish coulda-been hits the man himself was too backed-up to dish out on his own discs.
It’s the sound of snakeskin pumps but twice as tart.
>> mp3 : Ooo She She Wa Wa – Apollonia 6
The Vanity 6 disc was actually released on cd, e-bay’ll do it to ya. The Apollonia 6 album is stuck on vinyl or cassette, so sneaky searches for mp3s are what we’re stuck with on that front.
