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Say It Like That
Abra Moore
Strangest Places
1997

Man, this is kind of embarrassing. Like, I can recognize that this isn't a very good album (unlike my ability to acknowledge the supposed cheesiness of BH 90210). Some of the songs (including this one) can be a little awkward [Edit: now that I have read the lyrics, it doesn't seem awkward anymore...probably because she is saying "And how you're planning to steal/my heart away" and NOT "And how you're planning to steal/my Hollywood", which is what I've heard, well, up until yesterday. I realize that what I heard makes no sense whatsoever, BUT. Reading the lyrics has increased my like for this song exponetially). Abra Moore is, essentially, a one-hit-wonder (she did release four other albums, but is solely remembered for that infectious hit "Four-Leaf Clover").

Maybe I was drawn back to this album because of our recent visit to the Plateau. I bought the album at one of the used record shops dotting Mont-Royal street when I was in grade 11. Even then, I knew it probably wasn't going to be all that great. I saw Abra Moore at my first Lilith Fair in Ottawa in 1998. I wasn't really familiar with her music--just that she had a sweet honey voice and one song featured on the two-disc Lilith Fair live album. "Four Leaf Clover" reminds me of Summer; of the radio turned up in the car and the windows rolled down, of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch" and Marcy Playground's "Sex & Candy" (my 90s nostalgia is like a one long chain; one loop connected to another and, in seconds, I can diverge pretty far from that original loop).

Anyway.
Back to the first loop:
Abra Moore.
I was feeling all doubtful about posting this song, because, in the grand musical scheme of things, it probably doesn't mean all that much to me, BUT when it came on my iPod the other day when I was (what else?) washing dishes in the kitchen, I had to dry my hands off to turn the volume up. There are certain songs--or sometimes just parts of songs-- that make me feel instantly elated. This is one of those songs. I like the use of repetition in this song (i.e "holdin' on" or "curtain blue" or "wish it could"). I know I mentioned Abra Moore's voice earlier, but there is just something about it that makes me want to bring it up again. I like its girlishness; its mix of sweet innocence and subtle huskiness. The lyrics (in their correct version) are what encouraged me to post this song. I love:

"Holding your breath again, you're holdin'
on, holdin' on
I can feel it
Holding your breath again, someday you're
gonna have to let it go"

and I appreciate the idea of saying what you want/mean to say ("Say all the things that you never could/Say what you want, say what you feel"), because it is something I have a hard time with and wish I could do more easily. I want to be able to just "let go".

I'll end with another reference to the 90s. I love the sound of this song. That Blues Travelleresque harmonica, its pop-rock sensibility. Funny, by the end of writing this post and after dozens of listens, I'm happy to be sharing it with you!