Browse by Artist: CRISTINA

Artist:	CRISTINA
Title:	Doll In The Box
Label:	ZE RECORDS (FRANCE)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ZE 011CD

First ever CD reissues of the 2 ZE Records albums by Cristina, originally issued in 1980/1984. Doll In The Box was her 1st album, released eponymously at the time. This Deluxe foldout digipak reissue features the original album, plus 5 bonus tracks from singles (most prominently: the long version of the legendary/withdrawn "Is That All There Is?", plus 2 version of the early "Disco Clone" single). Recorded in 1978-80, at the heyday of the ZE explosion. Produced by August Darnell. "She had a keen mind, biting wit, and a model's beauty. Her career barely lasted a half-decade, yet she worked with movie star Kevin Klein, Grammy Award-winner Don Was (Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time), The Knack's Doug Fieger, sax radical James Chance, and August Darnell, a/k/a Kid Creole. Her legacy? Some brilliant singles, two albums, praise from Siouxsie, Blondie, and the fifth estate... and now, these reissues: Doll In A Box and Sleep It Off. Darnell wrote and produced Cristina's eponymous 1980 LP, featuring the West Coast cult hit 'Jungle Love.' Although she concedes that Darnell used Cristina's sophisticated disco-cum-big band arrangements, so well-suited to the budding Kid Creole and the Coconuts, as a platform to showcase his own strengths, she retains affection for it. 'It was the first cinematic, theatrical, nostalgic disco record, at a time when there wasn't a lot of humor in disco.' In a similar vein, the team also conjured up a swing rendition of the Beatles' 'Drive My Car' (arranged by Darnell's brother, Stony Browder, alias Dr. Buzzard), with Cristina mimicking Marilyn Monroe to the last gasp."

Artist:	CRISTINA
Title:	Sleep It Off
Label:	ZE RECORDS (FRANCE)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ZE 012CD

First CD reissue of the 2nd and final Cristina album, originally issued in 1984. Deluxe foldout digipak reissue, with 6 bonus tracks. Produced by Don Was, with guest musicians including Marcus Melgrave & James Chance. "The singer fared better with her next collaborator, Don Was. 'It's completely in keeping with the ZE philosophy to put two extremely disparate elements together, and see what happens,' says the producer. Sleep It Off was a masterpiece, from its unsettling Jean Paul Goude cover, to the haunting acoustic ballad 'He Dines Out on Death.' In between, Cristina snarled the Sex Pistols-ish 'Don't Mutilate My Mink' ('We should've given John Lydon a writing credit,' says Was), the electro-funk of 'Ticket to the Tropics,' and a raucous romp through Van Morrison's 'Blue Money.' Her rendition of 'She Can't Say That Anymore' proved so sublime, hardly anyone realized it was a reinterpretation of 1980 country hit; 'I found the song very evocative of screen doors, mosquitoes and sweat, Deep South depravity.' 'The one thing that pop music has lost lately is its sense of irony,' Cristina lamented when Sleep It Off dropped in 1984. 'People either write dumb-funny novelty songs or dead-earnest serious songs. There's nothing around that combines elements of both. There's none of the real wit and self-humor of anyone from a Bertolt Brecht to a Cole Porter or an early Dylan.' 20 years later, Sleep It Off's producer, Don Was, still holds Cristina in the highest esteem. 'I didn't fully realize it at the time, but she achieved a certain artistic ideal. Sleep It Off is an incredibly honest representation of what she was about. Twenty years later, I've learned that that's what you want to do when you produce an album: Take a snapshot of somebody. Certainly, there were exaggerations -- everyone is more complex than they can express in a three-minute song -- but Sleep It Off is as accurate a portrait as Nick of Time."

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