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CD
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ZE 012CD
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2016 restock. 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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