She's So Unusual

Day345 - an icon. the first six songs are amazing, she’ll be in the rock and roll hall of fame in 2025 and it will be long overdue

It's a 5 based on the singles alone - with the filla not being too bad either (other than He's so unusual which sucks). Absolutely love girls just wanna have fun - it triggers this weird 80's Americana nostalgia vibes within me. Good times. Shame the song from Goonies not on this album.

Great cleaning music

God

I love how this album starts. The band strikes an excellent initial fun and energetic entrance, and then Cyndi Lauper's voice pierces through like a trumpet soloing on top of an orchestra. When the chorus of this first track lands, I'm already thinking about how this sound is so perfectly 80's; how so many other choruses and songs and acts all borrowed from this idea. "Time After Time" for me is one of those songs where when I start to hear it, I get stopped in my tracks and get a rush of warmth and nostalgia and just a bunch of feelings. I don't necessarily attach it to any specific moment(s) in my life, but it's just so good that I have to pause and appreciate it. In 1995 she performed it live on Howard Stern's radio show with a dulcimer and a basic Shure $100 SM57 mic. She has a violinist and an organist with her too, but this simple setup leads to one of my favorite performances of any piece of music ever. I don't know when I heard it first (I was 5 at that time so probably it was years later), but it was my first time hearing her and being like "I like this music". The climactic moment where she sings the high harmony "I will be waiting" is pure art magic. I really adore the lyrics of "Time After Time", they are simple and profound and I think that those are often the lyrics that resonate the most with me. More approach-ability and less verbosity for the sake of complexity. I love the visual imagery throughout with her weaving in and out of problems with the pace of a relationship and how it connects to time and an actual clock next to her bed. Thinking about a list of the most quintessential 80's songs, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is near the top. It's the sound of 80s energy, it's so lyrically apt for the 80's, and it must be one of the songs that the everyday person thinks of when they think of 1980's music. It's an amazing song and one of the most fun songs ever. "When You Were Mine" is a super underrated bop as well. I covered it with my friend Jake for a birthday party concert a few years back. There's nothing quite like getting to know a song by learning all it's ins and outs. "She Bop" is also a standout track that is easily forgotten about. I love this album art. I've written before on this list about how I love when album artworks captures some kind of "moment in time", and this is a great example. It's the early 1980's, fashion is starting to explode into crazy saturations, music is starting to shed it's warm timbres in favor of sharper and edgier synthetic sounds, and everything feels a bit more vibrant. I've gone back and forth about this being a 4 or a 5. At first I thought it was a strong 4 as I knew it had "Girls Just Want to Have fun", and then I noticed that this album also has "Time After Time" on it. For me, those tracks along with "She Bop" and "When You Were Mine" are just too good to not be a 5.

Great album! Quirky, yet accessible.

Always loved this album. Kinda bubble gum pop, but takes me back to good times. Favorite song: Yeah Yeah

Easy 5-star!

Masterful fusion of pop and new wave.

A blast of an album from start to finish. Brings back great childhood memories.

Eine wichtiges Album. Darum hat auch Miles Davis den Song Time after Time gecovert.

Probably an extra point for '80s teen nostalgia

If you can get past the familiarity, the hits on this album are so freakin' good. They're played a lot, but I think it's so well deserved. The music itself is really fun and a bop on its own, but then her voice takes everything to another level. She's so incredibly vocally talented. The end and fade out of "Money Changes Everything" is a prime example of her talent. The non-hits on the album are still bops but are just good and not great. Still a very fun album to listen to from beginning to end. Favorite Song(s): Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Time After Time, All Through the Night

Loved!

Geez, I love this album so much. I've loved it since my Dad got it when it came out in 1983, and I love it now. I was also a big wrestling fan as a kid, and the Cyndi Lauper/Capt Lou team-up was all a kid could ask for. Is it perfect? No, I find the last 3 songs on the album are definitely the weakest. However, I'm still giving it 5 stars, one for each hit on this album, +1 for the wrestling connection. :star::star::star::star::star:

Really? Do you need a review for this album. It's quirky, fun, party music with just the right touch of pathos. I mean, Girls Just Want To Have Fun is on this album. A versino of Prince's When You Were Mine done in the least Price way is on this album. The sad and soulful Time After Time is on this album. The ever so slightly dirty She Bop is on this album. This was an enourmous hit when it came out in 1983 fueled by the party atmosphere in clubs and MTV in general. Even today, Girls Just Want To Have Fun is a staple of anything 80s plus alt-rock stations. Teenagers today still listen to it and Time After Time shows up in Rom-Com movies. I could go on by why? You all know this album and why it's great.

Perfect 80s pop. Loved it.

An upbeat ride on the unusual bus

She's so good! I love this album. Her voice is amazing. All the big songs still hit me. I added the Prince cover When You Were Mine to a playlist earlier this year and love it whenever it comes on

Another great album by a female artist.

Some people can sing really well, some have a beautiful voice, and some have “ a sound” - Cyndi Lauper has all of those.

Bold and enjoyable 4.6

The cover of Girls Just Want to Have Fun is so known and kind of silly that you sleep on how good she is. This was so much better than I was expecting.

This album is Cyndi Lauper's legacy. Besides the title track from the follow-up album, TRUE COLORS, I imagine if anyone thinks about Cyndi, they're gonna think about this album--and its big hit more specifically. From the quick overview I did, it just seemed nothing else she did (besides "True Colors") could really ever compare to how big and explosive her debut was. Which I don't think is a bad thing, entirely. Like, if you're gonna have a legacy, this album is a pretty good one to have. For one, as overplayed as "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" may be... It's still "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". It's one of the biggest and most iconic songs of the 80's, and not for no reason. It's huge, it's anthemic, and, dammit, it's just plain fun. And "fun" is the word I'd apply to the rest of this album. Sure, it's all pure bubblegum. No one's suggesting you should live off of it. Take it from someone who chews a lot of Juicy Fruit, though: it's really tasty gum. Produced in the most superbly 80's New Wave pop kinda way. Lauper sounds like she's having an absolute blast recording this thing. Add on top of that a pretty good of my favorite early Prince single... Honestly, I have a hard time thinking of any negative points I feel worth bringing up. Maybe the fact that "He's So Unusual" is hard-right panned? And then in that same ear on "Yeah Yeah" you've got this squeaky Harley Quinn voice? And "Witness" might be the weakest song? I'unno. None of that makes me want to give this album any less than a 5, anyway. It's just fun, and that's all I, a girl, want.

I’m at a very fun 5. I’ve known Cyndi Lauper was good – Girls Just Want to Have Fun & Time After Time are quintessential 80s tracks. I didn’t know she was this good. The first 6 tracks on this one may well be all-timers, even if 3 of them are covers. Money Changes Everything surprised me, mainly because I was fully expecting the tone of this album to follow the poppier synths of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, but she pulls off that Springsteen-esque style really fucking well. Her vocals get one hell of a showcase, and it sets the tone that this album doesn’t have to be all bubblegum and sunshine. Jumping ahead, the When You Were Mine cover is pretty damn good too. She Bop is pretty fun, but I couldn’t quite place why I liked it so much. Just catchy as hell. All Through the Night is the emotional peak of the album, and I’m genuinely stunned it wasn’t the last track on the album. Beautiful, beautiful track that I’d never heard until listening through this, but it stunned me. The album sort of falls down after that – Witness & I’ll Kiss You are both really fun with their own neat production tricks and stylization quirks, but after All Through The Night, they just sort of pale by comparison. The last two tracks are where it just sort of stumbles to a finish line – the Betty Boop stuff didn’t click as well with me for a sort of feminist-driven album and just felt backwards, and Yeah Yeah has a great transition, but the rest feels like it was produced super early on in the album, and Cyndi just didn’t want it to go to waste. Either way, those first 6 tracks are so fucking good they deserve a 5 on their own, and the album doesn’t collapse so badly as to drop it any lower. When I think of 80s pop and 80s synthwork, this sort of soundscape is exactly what my brain thinks of. To hear it fully encapsulated and properly executed throughout an entire album of the era feels super satisfying, and it certainly helps that most of the tracks are about as catchy and fun as I was hoping for. It’s an incredibly easy 5 for me, even if it does sort of stumble down towards the end. I really, really enjoyed that.

This album is kind of a 2 hit wonder but to be honest, I enjoyed the whole thing.

Album 552 of 1001 Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (1983) Rating : 5 / 5 One of those that made me smile real big when it was revealed as album of the day. We go way back. Freshman year of college. As a pop music fan I felt I had to choose between Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. It wasn't even close. I just love this album. No doubt I've heard it hundreds of times. I know every note of every song and enjoy it every time I hear any of them. Great vocals...fun vibe...awesome tunes...great memories. I also recommend the early album from her pre-solo years band Blue Angel...great tracks from the early 80s NYC Rockabilly scene.

She’s so talented. It’s no surprise she was top of the charts. She had a great voice! And she was backed by good songwriting and studio work. But her fame faded quickly. Maybe getting involved in the pro wrestling scene diluted her credibility? Can’t be sure. But after listening to the album and hearing not only the hits but the great singing that didn’t get airplay it’s disappointing that her career was fairly short.

perfect

Fun sound

The eighties called, and it wants to party! I give this five big beats on the drum machine and a gated snare.

4.5

im just a girl 👯‍♀️

Cyndi Lauper's debut album She's So Unusual start with a heavy punchy drums on `Money Changes Everything` to continue with the World known Hit song `Girls Just Want to Have Fun`. The style is set and the quality of the production alone is worth the listening. The album is pretty good overall, with a small dislike for the 2 ending title.

Loved it. Her voice is so unique. That intro to She Bop is.... *chef's kiss*.

Loved it, 80s pop perfection.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper, the best.

80s vibes pur

What a fantastic and nostalgic album. I've always loved her unique vocals and spunky attitude. I didn't own this album, but I did have Twelve Deadly Cyns. I can't wait to see her live in a couple of months...it'll be a childhood dream come true.

Big fan of Cyndi and of this album. Top to bottom it's full of old favourites of mine. Very much enjoyed a revisit to this one.

Loved it

So crazy for a debut. A little bit frontloaded as the last two tracks seem a bit weaker. However an amazing album with so many classics. 4.5

Actually bought this album when I was in high school in the 80s. Pure pop wonderful. Cyndi has an amazing voice and great personality.

Good

Hell yeah

a classic

This one just got better and better. The hits are great but even the non-hits are amazing. I love her and will add this album to my favs :)

I did not "steal" my sister's tape cassette. I was just "borrowing" it ... for like 100 listens. I loved this album then and I love it even more today. Every song on this album is great. I love her voice and the songwriting is so catchy and creative. Fabulous instrumentation. And it's recorded so well. This is an album that you can listen to really loud and it sounds fucking amazing. She's not only unusual, she's brilliant. 6 stars.

This album is effing awesome! Totally 80s, totally Cyndi, and totally perfect. Every song pretty much kicks ass. Love love love.

Peppy feminist pop.

9/10 I’d only heard the two big singles, I think, so this was a massively pleasant shock. It has aged extremely well, so much in fact that it would fit in with the musical zeitgeist of 2024. Fans of both Prince and Chappell Roan will like this I think (and the latter must have been heavily influenced by this) Impeccable synth-pop-rock, well produced, well sung, a perfect length too. Some brilliant synths in here. Best: All Through The Night

She Bop has no business going that hard. Damn.

Outstanding album

Such a great album. The last three songs are meh, although they might grow on me with repeated listening. But the rest, well, they're fabulous. It's a delightful album.

I was a little girl in the 80s of course I loved Cyndi lauper

I found a copy of this album on vinyl at a Salvation Army about a month ago, and it was in pretty good condition, so I bought it. What the hell, for $3, right? Now, I was in high school when this album burst onto the scene, and I thought I knew it because of all the hits that erupted from it, but upon listening to it end-to-end, I gained a much greater respect for it and for Cyndi Lauper. Here delivery at times reminds me of David Johansen (New York Dolls, Buster Poindexter), but a few octaves higher. At other times, her Betty Boop inflection was on-point and intentional. What really struck me is how strong an album, as a single artistic work, this is. It's not High Art, but it's a damn good product and example of 80's synth-pop. I'm surprised I didn't have a taped copy for my Walkman back in the day.

Pure 80s new wave pop goodness.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper, the best.

Great Album, great songs and you can definitely still hear her influence in modern songs nowadays. No matter if it‘s pop-rock or pop in general.

This one has some of her best known work - Time after time, girls just want to have fun, all through the night - definitely a lot of bops (including She bop!). Very upbeat and fun.

This is the album that not only has the all time classics of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through the Night" but lesser known gems "Money Changes Everything" and "When You Were Mine" and cheeky Betty Boop song "He's So Unusual". SHE'S SO UNUSUAL was important because Lauper's inversion of songs that she covered from a female perspective and her use of a mix of styles including rock, afro-carribean, reggae, boop, and synth-pop influences that prepared American audiences and set the stage for other artists to break through not long after this record, particularly Madonna, who would take Cyndi Lauper's vibe and run with it. Given the seriousness of the subject, Lauper's album manages to be fun and not cringy or preachy, with her cheeky delivery. This album also has the gorgeous full 80s production that so many on this challenge denigrate, but I say to hell with you, I love the "overly done" 80s production style.

Filled with amazing songs. A talent on display

A great pop album, and one that I have a lot of nostalgia for. It might sound pretty weird to someone who's never heard her before, but it's distinctive - I like that. Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Time After Time are iconic. She Bop was my favorite as a kid, but All Through the Night is my favorite now. I just learned today that it's a cover, so I went and listened to the original. It was OK, but Cyndi's version is better. Overall, it's a very '80s sounding album, and that's fine with me.

I cleaned the entire kitchen listening to this

She is HER. Banger album

GIIIRLS JUST WANNA HAAVE FUUUUN 50% pure fun, 50% pure nostalgia

Holy fucking 80’s bro. In the best way.

Oh yeah Oh yeah yeah! This is amazing I literally hear the modern influences to TV girl and even some eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. This is exactly the type of music I love, upbeat and beautiful. I will be bumping this for years god this is such a summer album, especially with how sunny it is today

Good Album

I know the “hits”. I’m looking forward to diving into this. This album is really great and more than just an “80s album”.

Listening to this, I'm transported back to the magical early 80s...the likes of The Thompson Twins, Adam and the Ants, and Howard Jones are doing their thing in the UK charts, Madonna is about to release her first album, and the world doesn't know it yet, but we're counting down to Live Aid. This context makes Cyndi Lauper's debut with such a fresh and different voice and image, even more impressive. And that was further highlighted when she sang so memorably two years later on the US for Africa single 'We Are the World'. N.B. I immediately knew Prince had written the track 'When You Were Mine'...his is such a distinctive sound. I also noticed that Freiheit stole the build-up bit from Cyndi's 'All Through the Night' and used it in the Christmas classic 'Keeping the Dream Alive', released in 1988 :) Favourite track: It has to be Time After Time

Actually loved this. Very nostalgic for an 80’s child

Great pop album

“A very famous man in the industry said to me once that rock ’n’ roll is disposable music. I said, ‘Oh, hell no, it's not!’ I don't make songs that are disposable. I'm making songs that are going to last. I hope that when I'm old and gray and all gone, that my music will still give somebody hope, or lift, or help with something, the same way that I get it with other songs that other musicians have recorded that I sang forever.”

Fantastic album! Her vocals are charismatic and powerful. So many of these songs are hits and even the non-hits are still great. This is probably the best 80’s pop album, and I’d listen to this album any day. 4.6 stars

Always love her stuff way more than I anything I connected to with someone like Madonna at the time great stuff her from Cyndi 5 for sure!

Pop perfection. “Time After Time” is a classic. Super strong vocals throughout. Some surprising moments (“Yeah Yeah”).

Quintessential 80's!

i never liked cyndi lauper growing up, which is very weird (or unusual, one may say ((hehe haha i am so funny)) ) because her whole brand is something that i usually would be obsessed with. my dad, on the other hand, is a huge fan of her music and would play it all the time. i would get annoyed every time i'd hear her raspy voice, finding her to be extremely obnoxious. i saw that this album had been generated for me and i was immediately dreading pulling it up. now, i actually realize why this woman is so successful. when "money changes everything" came on, something just clicked. this album is just banger after banger! she is differnet. she wasn't afraid to do something unique and truly be her authentic and unapologetic self. she makes creative and feel good music that is necessary for society. it seems everyone today is so angsty and negative about everything, which is understandable considering the current state of it all, but you can't live your life in a constant state of pessimism. you're just doing harm to yourself and everybody aroud you. every time i turn on the radio, everything is so broody and aggressive and vulgar, it ruins the vibes!!!!!!! can people just be creative? all these people are trying to be something they're not and it's slowly morphing all of us into one. we are all individuals! we should take after cyndi lauper and learn to be OURSELVES. this has honestly just turned into one huge ramble, but whatever if anybody actually ends up reading this they get to witness a 17 year old girl going kinda crazy while procrastinating on their homework. i will say one more thing though. my friend and i were talking to our french teacher a couple weeks ago about fashion and music, and she told us that when she was in high school, people all dressed differently. people had their own styles and were innovative while trying to look cute on a budget. she told us that now she never sees anyone who actually looks unique anymore and that she can't tell who we are through how we dress anymore. that last part just stuck with me. you cannot tell who a person is and their interests just by their outfit anymore, and it sucks! i've made it my goal to dress as "me" as possible every time i go out now. anyways this album is actually amazing and i think it's one of my favourite records ever now.

One of the greatest

Wild wall to wall bangers

I read someone’s comment or an article somewhere that said “Cyndi Lauper should have had the career that Madonna had” and I think about that when I hear some of her songs. I’ve always love Girls Just Want to Have Fun. I don’t care that I’m a dude. I certainly love it more now that I’m a girl dad of two. It’s a truly fantastic pop song, one of the best of the 80’s. Time After Time isn’t far behind either, what a great song. My biggest takeaway from listening to her debut this time is how great of an opener Money Changes Everything is. What a banger! I love the Carsesque lead over the Mellencampesque guitar and rhythm section. Cyndi could siiing too (watch the We Are The World documentary on Netflix for a demonstration, or just listen to this). I get very excited when I hear these songs and it’s interesting throughout. I see no reason to drop any stars.

I adored this and her. It gets five stars just for the Betty Boop stuff at the end.

Cindy Lauper rocks. Listened to this one a hundred times or more. Easily one of the greatest pop albums of all time, no notes.

This is a delightful album - its bursting with positive energy, and really encapsulates an era where women were realising and fighting for their full potential. Despite that it's not preachy or in-your-face. I was going to say that some of these songs gave me Bjork vibes and that Cyndi ran so Bjork could walk. But I don't think that pitting women against each other is in the spirit of this album

Such a fun classic

Great album. All the songs are so good. Really fun listen the whole way through. Favorite songs are Time after Time, Money Changes Everything, Girls just wanna have fun.

Wasn’t expecting to love this one so much but it’s just banger after banger, she’s sick and the synths and guitars sound sick. Love the when you were mine cover.

She’s so cool. I like time after time. I think her voice is so unique and she’s like the OG sad dance girl

Britpop Girls just wanna have fun Time after time She Bop Sehr gut hörbar 4-5/5

When this popped up as today's album, I knew today was going to be a good day. "She's So Unusual" is an absolute masterpiece of pop. Artful, emotional, a wholly unique vocal, and hooks for days. Like, the A side of this record?? Come the fuck on. So many of Cyndi's vocal twists (see: the chorus on "When You Were Mine") just send dopamine rushing out of my brain like I just ate a pressy of really pure MDMA. Also, those backing vocals on "Time After Time"??? COME ON NOW. After humanity is long dead and gone, I hope this is the artifact of our existence that the aliens find amongst the rubble.

So many hits on one album

Nach zwei Songs fühlst du dich wie auf einem Hoverboard mit dem Du „Time After Time“ zurück in die 80er schwebst in die Zeiten als noch „Girls just want to have fun“ wollten. Die Partys waren „All Through the Night“ und am Morgeb war „She Bop“. Tolle Stimme, schönes Album, klasse Sängerin .. she‘s unusual 😊

Vivan los 80!

This is a perfect record. It's so fun and good and tough and weird. I love it.

I love the 80s, and this is such a can't miss album from then. Always a joy of a listen.

How do I review the very first cassette that I bought for myself? Could probably sing every word off this one. I idolized her style back in the day. Girls wanted to dye her hair wild colors and run around in crinoline skirts. Cyndi came out of nowhere and was nothing like anyone else in pop music, at the time. For all her irreverent affectation, her voice was undeniable. Kind of like Bjork before Bjork. Just as strong and controlled as any of the more traditional singers. And certainly better quality than her closest contemporary, Madonna. Musically, this is still pretty solid. The Prince cover sounds as good as ever. Every woman my age can probably sing Time After Time by heart. And the song still hits exactly the same. It’s been a long time since I listened to this album. Expected it to sound totally dated and cringey. But it’s not that at all. You could legitimately release some of this today and it would be more successful than it was back then. She Bop is still hilarious, All Through the Night is still pretty. There’s a lot of range, different styles, a few surprises. Lots of unapologetic silliness and fun. This was definitely “Unusual”. Liberating for little girls at the time.

The world is a better place for having Cyndi in it

Nice

Such a great album. Every song is a banger. 5/5 so good!

Mi musica de limpiar, de locos cindy todo temazos si si

Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper, the best.

Awesome

This has a lot of sounds that make me feel like life could be more. Great listen, didn't realize how creative she was until I fully listened to this album

Super fun, super 80's. What more do you want?

Simply divine.

Bop after bop

One of my childhood favorites

liked it a lot.

I love this album. I know the major hits of course but there were several I'd never heard and were really impressive. Witness stood out especially.

I’m an 80’s hater but when it hits it HITS! This was the best of the best

So great!!!!

10/10 album. There's not a bad song on here

I had never listened to this whole album before, but I really enjoyed it! And Cyndi Lauper isn’t really my thing.

Loved most of this. The Christmas songs were not my favorite.

No she’s not

Forget the image, this is a collection of great pop songs. Essential listening.

Everything about this album emits fun, and Cyndi certainly had a lot of fun recording this. It’s an unusual mix of sounds which make for an interesting listen. From the first track, Money Changes Everything, brilliant live, to the massive hits Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Time After Time there are also outstanding tracks in All Through The Night She Bop and When You Were Mine. You will not be disappointed in this and for a time Cyndi was on par with Madonna in terms of Commercial success. This album was a great start for Cyndi later work. She’s So Unusual is a masterpiece in eclectic pop, and way ahead of its time.

yep... Cindi Lauper. About what I figured... kinda classic 80's pop though. Peppy and synth-y.

Me encanto

Girls just want to have fun - as fantastic as ever

Hit after hit. Solid pop album!

fantastic debut — perfect from beginning to end — 10/10

Quite a good music - already knew some classics!

Cyndi Lauper was an '80s icon. Her distinct voice and catchy fun beats really made her special, and she's still amazing, albeit differently. Great album!

Not a huge fan of Cyndi Lauper coming into this listen. I knew few of the mega hit songs were on this album though, so I was expecting that. Surprisingly it was a great listen, found myself fully engaged to the music, and the time flew by. Loaded with that 80s synth that I miss too! 5/5

1983. This is the perfect example of 80s pop. I know most of the songs on the album and the ones I didn’t sounded familiar. 5 for nostalgia

great pop, i like the psychedelic guitar sound

help i've developed a debilitating crush on Cyndi Lauper from looking at the album cover

Timeless, uplifting, almost never wrong.

Nearly flawless album.

This is a glowing neon beacon of everything fabulous and fun about the 80's! This whole album is killer, it's just super fun party times from start to finish. It seriously plays like a Greatest Hits compilation. I know all of these songs by heart, big fan of Cyndi and love what she brings to the table. Her strangeness and authenticity are so endearing and effortlessly charming; it doesn't feel as manufactured as everything else at this time did, which is a triumph in its own right! They did a real slick job commercializing her, BUT she's still so tangibly real to me, I respect her artistry. You've got the anthem for party girls, an ode to masturbation, the emotionally stirring Time After Time... damn, Cyndi! You came out swinging loud and proud, a bold and brazen weirdo, my kinda people. And the end result is a remarkable debut album. Love it. I wanna keep on having all the FUN with you!

YES. One of my favourite 80s album. Cyndi is the best and this album is A+ from the first song to the last.

The entire A-side (i.e., the initial six tracks) are consistently stellar pop songs. The latter four tracks are ok but forgettable. Not a perfect album but five stars based firmly on Side A.

Absolute banger. It banged me.

Great album!!! Almost all the songs were a hit for me

This album is like concentrated 80's nostalgia and fun. I remember rocking out to these as a kid and I enjoyed them just as much listening to them today.

CRAZY GOOD ALBUM SHEEEEEESH. Girls just wanna have fun and time after time are ofc classics. I LOVE all through the night, low key prolly my fav on the album. This is 80s pop perfection.

Half the Hooters play on this record and its a Muscular Pop Record. Money Changes Everything is a standout & Time after Time has become a standard

Interesting! I was talking or thinking about Cyndi Lauper yesterday but now I can’t remember why. People love her but until I was an adult I thought she was a one hit wonder. So we’ll see! I know she’s got pipes. This is so good, it’s weird. Much more musically sophisticated than I thought—I always assumed this was her first album but let’s look it up. Ok so yes debut album but she had a few years of professional music experience prior and it really shows. Witness is my favorite. Fuck this album slaps hahaha. Definitely worth a revisit! I knew Lauper had a reputation beyond my limited consideration and now I see why.

Girls just want to have fun Time after time

a great balance of well known songs and lesser known ones that are just as well crafted. Never would have listened to it other than this recommendation.

This is the album that has “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. Great album & song and blast to the past.

Such a good album. Classics such as “Girls just Wanna have Fun” and “Time after Time”. Songs that stood out: “When you were Mine”, “She Bop”. I stopped picking out songs when I realized every one was great. This album proved just how great Cyndi Lauper was, at least for this record. 5/5.

baita som, melhor que o esperado fazendo jus ao seu grande hit

pop music standard. the prince cover is one of my all time favs

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick and think of you Caught up in circles Confusion is nothing new Flashback warm nights Almost left behind Suitcase of memories Time after Sometimes you picture me I'm walking too far ahead You're calling to me I can't hear What you've said Then you say go slow And I fall behind The second hand unwinds If you're lost you can look and you will find me Time after time This is actually a fantastic album disguised as an 80s candy pop album. Nostalgia aside, the lyrics and themes are outstanding. 5/5

Great

Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper, the best.

The pop/punk/oldie/synth/diva smashup this lady was up made perfect sense when I was 6. I think we might owe her some backlogged respect.

An 80s classic in all the good ways.

Niceeeeeeeeee! 80’s pop, what else do u want?

Pure 80s synth pop mastery. Would get a 5 from me for Time after Time alone.

First time that I listened to a Cindy Lauder's album. I didn't realise that it was the "Girls just wanna have fun"'s one at first but it only made the listening more pleasurable. Definitely would listen to it again : pleasant singing, catchy rythm, not too long, nice cover.

While all the beloved classics still sound excellent, Money Changes Everything was always my favorite Cyndi Lauper song. I forgot it opened up this album. She changed so much for us 80s girls that didn't fit the classic American high school vibe. Today she demonstrates to all us heteronormative folk how to be a real ally to the LGBTQ+ community. This album definitely deserves a number of listens before you die.

I cannot believe the one of the goats status this album deserves. This was absolutely oozing with pop culture. Also legendary album art.

Now this is an album you MUST hear before you die. Every single song is fantastic, but 'Time After Time' is one of the best of the entire decade.

Amaze

There's just something so flawless and effortless about She's So Unusual. Delicious synthpop backing Lauper's playful energy, it would be difficult not to imagine dancing along to this album, and were I alone in my house at the moment, I surely would. Even at her quietest, she's got an infectious spirit that can't be understated.

Very enjoyable 80s bops, even if the best song is a cover of a Prince song. Enjoyed this one.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & Time After Time; absolute classics. I'll Kiss You reference to love potion No. 9 from The Searchers (I literally only listened to that yesterday!)

Growing up in the 80’s, four songs from this album were on heavy rotation on my parents’ FM dial. As part of the soundtrack of my youth, these songs hold a special place from a special time to be alive. Not many albums are drenched in such a pure, quintessential early 80’s aesthetic as “She’s So Unusual.” 4.8/5

If this isn't the sound of the 80s I don't know what is....

By far, Cyndi Lauper's best album (I guess True Colors is her only really good song not on this album). Liked it in the 80s and I like it now, which should count for something. Girl Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time and She Bop are 5*, while Money Changes, All Through The Night, Yeah Yeah Yeah are 4* just like the Prince cover, but Witness, and He's So Unusual are less special. This, plus the longevity factor, gives a weighted average of 5*.

Heck yeah

Unexpectedly AWESOME

80s pop sensation.

Wow! Første 80-talls pop jeg kan digge. Stor aøbumopplevelse

Classic 80’s Cyndi Lauper. You can’t go wrong.

Didn’t know the whole album was a track!

80s pop mixing synth and rock guitars just feels so right. Probably a 4.5/5 cuz not every track slaps, but it's too good to round down. Infectious fun.

Favoritos: -Girls just wanna have fun -Time after time -Witness -I´ll kiss you Son temázos, que quieres que te diga. El mejor de momento.

Wow; fantastic! What a time, what an album! Great 80s vibe. I’m such a sucker for it. 5! TBz 1. Time After Time 2. Girls Just Want to Have Fun 3. She Bop 4. All Through the Night

Classic

What a great album! I loved the whole thing. This was one of the albums that this list really worked well for me, because I’d never really stopped to listen to Cyndi Lauper except a few of her hits. She’s got a great voice, is eclectic in such a great way, and made me get up and dance instead of hitting that afternoon coffee. I’m a fan.

Normally I would not give an album 5 stars if I did not like at least half the tracks on it, but this one is an exception. Even though I only particularly liked 4 out of 10 of the tracks, at least 3 of those songs I know for a fact are still widely listened to even today. So many songs on this album have withstood the test of time and will never get old. I love Cyndi Lauper!

Awesome

Nostalgia in all the right ways. Feels like I'm in an 80s rom com with the dreamy synths. Recognized a lot of songs just from in passing

Wonderful album!

Classic

loooove it

Side 1 is an all-all-timer, and why Lauper remains a legend nearly 40 years after this album. Even if the biggest hits are 80s cliches at this point, they're still fun and exciting every time I hear them. I feel like she gets way underrated mostly because Madonna also existed (who I love too, no shade here). When You Were Mine is Prince's greatest new wave song, so it's great to hear it here to and keeping some of the gender fun with the pronouns. Side 2 leads off with She Bop, one of the all time great masturbation songs, and is a cool mix of sounds (next is a ballad, a reggae/dub track, a Gary Numan new wave freak out about kissing, a novelty song that was co-written by a non-grandpa Al Lewis, and a glammed out party song, in that order)

Epic album

Maybe because this came out when I was 13, but this is one of the all-time great pop albums. Six singles, all great, front-loaded as the first six tracks, and even the following filler is listenable. "He's so unusual", a novelty joke, doesn't out-stay its welcome. Clearly of its time, but without suffering from it, this distinctive album is upbeat, funny, energetic and ear-catching. The production is definitely 80s, and heavy on the synths, but manages to maintain an organic energy without becoming too reliant on the technology. It's still, at heart, a kind of new wave pop/rock record. Most of the songs are technically 'covers', although obscure picks. "When you were mine" was an album cut and b-side, which Lauper makes her own. Prince's refusal to let her change the lyrics at all leads to her frankly tortured enunciation of the word "guy" to try and make it sound like "girl", if you sort of squint. But not changing it makes the song more interesting in terms of gender roles. If the object of her affection is going with another guy, then they are clearly bisexual (gender unspecified). I can't think of another good example of this until Me'Shell NdegéOcello's cover of "Who is he and what is he to you", ten years after this. The big singles ("Girls just want to have fun", "She-bop", "Time after time") are all impeccable pop classics. I really like Lauper's singing. It is a strange voice, but powerful and distinctive. You know who it is as soon as she starts singing. She has a wider range and variety of tone than she often gets credit for, and I think she really sells the songs. I really enjoy this record (which I occasionally spin to this day), and regard it is one of the all-time classics of unashamed pop. Five stars.

Great

I was in high school when this was released and it took me back. Fantastic album arhat captures that era beautifully. Cyndi was at her peak on that album.

Bit front loaded but so many bangers. Was a joy.

Cyndi Lauper is a Queen. 👑

This is definitely a quintessential 80's album, and it definitely makes me want to go jam out at a mountain lake in the middle of nowhere till 2 a.m.

OK, Cindy Lauper. I do know "Girls wanna have fun". I was at the age of 4 when this album got out. First song was okay. Your general 80s music. But as the album went on, i was surprised about how many songs i actually knew. Somehow the music an the voice got into my heart and struck a solid 4.5 for me.

A perfect pop album!

Un clásico de clásicos

Love this album

Boys also enjoy fun

So many memories and this is timeless!

Super fun new wave album with a ton of hit singles. Going from squeaky to deep and throaty, Lauper's voice is unlike any other. A great listen for today.

The album starts off with a bang which is pretty cool. I don’t know about the vocals and the way Cyndi Lauper sings them though, it’ll probably grow on me. It did. I like the harmonica in the first song. All through the night is pretty good too. Girls just wanna have fun is pretty good Time after time is my favorite song so far Yeah yeah has a GREAT intro

Ah. this is her famous album, the one with hit after hit. I may have been born after the hype of She's So Unusual but i do remember hearing this album growing up and abosutely loved it and to this day I still do.

The top singles were huge, but even so they don't convey how huge this album was on release. The first 6 tracks got regular radio airplay and Ms. Lauper was all over MTV. A number of the tracks are inescapably stuck in the 80's (like the cover of "When You Were Mine") but the record seriously stands the test of time (after time . . .)

Ova Cindy je zvijezda, naravno za dan žena! Nisan imala pojma da su pola albuma hitovi😁 Moćan glas i sve ostalo me baš dojmilo

I love the opening of "Money Changes Everything." Does it sound a bit like David Bowie? Also, "When You Were Mine" sounds like it belongs in the Umbrella Academy soundtrack.

Fantastic.

Esse álbum!!! 1983 e Cindy traz de volta a base de guitarra inspirada em Sexy Pistols com The Doors, mas ainda assim original! Money Changes everyting abre essa obra de arte, seguido de Girls Just wanna have fun, que projetou Cindy pro mundo. E Time After Time é o ponto alto desse play! Lindo!!!!

És gairebé un greatest hits de la millor música pop dels 80. Té tot el necessari per fer-te feliç una estona. Estiu pur

I remember a point in the mid 80s when it was "Cyndi Lauper vs Madonna". I was on Team Madonna, but I wish I'd been on both teams (lol) because She's So Unusual is such a good album and I feel like it would have been beneficial for me as a kid to be exposed to Cyndi Lauper's wild pop. There's something to be said for an album where the first six tracks are all pop classics (and the rest of the album is just as good). It's even the case that the mega hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" isn't even the best track on the album. And how many pop stars have had a hit with a song about flicking the bean? I love the influences of artists like Prince and the B-52s, getting all the coolest bits of new wave and making a pop masterpiece.

So cool. Finding out how much I liked this album was a surprise.

Cámara. No esperaba que fuera un buen disco. Y en realidad es un perro discazo.

Excelente disco. Fresco y lleno de éxitos

Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper, the best.

I didn't get to listen to all of this one, but it's a classic sound of the 80s!

good

простите, что так долго не постил - кайфовал от реально годного альбома 😎 Так, ну хилимся живём, получается. Сегодня у нас день гёрл-павера (инб4: следующий альбом уже затестил, он в ту же степь), а значит делаем хвостики и записываемся на ноготочки. А если серьёзно - как же радостно наконец-то слышать искренне ВЕСЁЛУЮ музыку, это пиздец. После вот этой всей душнины от унылоёблых блюзменов и клоунской маскулинности от всяких там глэмеров - так кайфово просто погонять короткий и энергичный альбомчик, полный приятного поп-синт-рока из восьмидесятых. Да, он, конечно, слегка, что называется, cheesy, но я бы сказал, что тут это даже несколько постиронично воспринимается, что ли. Учитывая, как я ненавижу эту желчную феминистическую музыку типа песен Ким Гордон - здесь можно найти настоящую отдушину, т.к. фокус не на месседже, а на вайбе. Запомните, малые, только через такие песни вы и можете покорить мир своей идеей, потому что если ваша (даже самая светлая и добрая) агитация идёт вкупе с болью и страданиями - никому она нахуй не будет нужна. Не зря же гей-гимн это YMCA или хиты Леди Гаги, а не заунывное нытьё Хозьера и Вейнрайта (жесть, когда он отпустит уже). Короче. Очень позитивный и хитовый релиз, куча угарных синтов, запоминающиеся припевы (спасибо господи), есть даже песня, написанная Принсом (хотя далеко не самая лучшая, но место имеет быть). Кстати, вот насчет авторства песен были сомнения - из всего материала непосредственно исполнительница приложила руку только к половине песен, остальное либо написано мужиками, либо кавер. От этого, конечно, коммерцией чутка отдаёт, но мне, сугубо говоря, похуй, пока качает. Тем более, что как раз авторская половина состоит из лучших песен - тут и годнейший хит Time after Time (мне кажется, я этот мотив где-то уже слышал, но да лан), и охуенная She Bop (с отрывом лучшая песня на альбоме, да ещё и про мастурбацию - смело встаёт в ряд легендарных высказываний на эту тему вместе с Whip It и Flagpole Sitta), и панковская I'll Kiss You. В общем и целом - совсем плохих песен замечено не было, есть поинтереснее, есть поскучнее, но в общем и целом это хотя бы заслуживает быть в списке того, что стоит послушать перед смертью. 9/10 Наиболее понравились: She Bop, Time After Time, I'll Kiss you Наименее понравились: Girls Just Want To Have Fun (хоть это и был первый сингл, но я не совсем понял прикола, т.к. песня была написана каким-то челом, ну и короче есть некоторое ощущение неуловленной иронии, да и в целом песни про желание быть тупым не одобряем, хотя по музыке прикольно), All Through the Night (единственный полноценный кавер, по-моему не стоило того).

Great pop album that isn’t just the same song for 11 tracks.

Banger

Great, classic, pop album. The overwhelming success of "Girls just wanna have fun" makes you want to forget it, but there are so many good tracks on this album outside of "Girls..."

Amazing debut album. Classic cover. 4 hits.

Awesome

Great piece of pop music, listened 2

good

En este LP está su mejor canción Time after Time.

Legend, full of bangers

Wasn’t enjoying the live aspects. Some tracks I didn’t know Cyndi Lauper recorded. Don’t think I will go back to revisit this as much as the others so far.

Great album that brings back so many memories.

Listened to this when I was a preteen and it was nice to revisit. Because I was listening in YouTube I got to see some awesome videos too. Fun vibes - girls just wanna have fun and time after time are my favourites

This is awesome... had no idea.

The hits are good and there’s some strong ballads. I didn’t care for the generic themed songs like swing and jazz rock.

So many hits.

Time after time is one of those classics I completely forgot for so long and now rediscovered with fiery passion. Cindy is an amazing artist and I'm glad I found her name again.

such a huge album both commercially and critically. So many hits!

I always had a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper and this album does not disappoint with some timeless classics, including Time After Time, She Bop, All Through the Night, Girls Want to Have Fun, and Money Changes Everything. Really great pop songs from back in the day. I'm kind of stuck in my grading between 4 and 5 and feel like it just falls short of a 5-star album just due a few "mid" tracks at the end. Am I being picky? Yes, but a 5-star album for me has to be one you can feel comfortable dropping the needle and letting it spin all the way to the end. This is awesome but feels like a 4.45 out of 5.

This sounds like th 80s in the best way. When you were mine, time after time and girls just want to have fun would make this great on their own, but the rest of the album is solid the whole way through.

I think this was the third album I ever bought. I don't know if any record has aged as well as this one. Heard it many, many times over the decades and it finally landed. Damn, it's really good.

One of my favorite 80s pop records. If it didn't have "I'll Kiss You" on it, I'd consider it close to perfect. The record is very front loaded and kind of fizzles out at the end of side two.

Great voice. Very bright pop sound but lots of personality.

Girls just want to have fun and this is way fun. Unique voice, upbeat music and very good writing with variety and nuance.

Two big hits. Not sure about the rest. Hesitant 7/10.

holy shit 3 women in a row this is unprecedented This was so fun! I definitely wish I listened to it on a run or something instead of while doing work, I feel like this would really boost my mood otherwise lol. I really liked all the synths and twinkling kind of sounds that 80s pop music has. Overall I think I would definitely listen again, this is a pretty great feel good record that I think would go hard while getting ready for going out (which I don’t do but anyway). A 3.877/5

This would’ve been a 5⭐️album if it weren’t for the last 2 songs

The hits definitely carry this one, the rest is decent enough pop. Her voice gets annoying sometimes but the songs are still catchy

está fixe

Classic

85

Catchy poppy goodness. Ironically the only non-bop was called She Bop 4

Good fun to reminisce about this one -- great tunes thereafter. Time after Time is, of course, an all-timer. I hadn't heard the back half of the album in a loooooong time, and there's some interesting stuff there, from the faux reggae of Witness to He's so Unusual. Also, this was the last time Papyrus font looked good on an album cover.

listened

She’s so fun

Really great album. Almost sounds like the epitome of the 80s and New Age music. There's some absolutely great songs on here, like Time After Time, which is always just a great song to sing to.

Cyndi's voice grates after a while, but there are so many great songs on here that not only defined the 80's but are still popular today. This is probably not getting promoted into my daily listening rotation but I was happy that it came up and it's a fun listen.

Admin knows when it’s Friday. Sometimes, music tells you something. I play in a men’s baseball league, and they asked us for a walk up song for playoffs. Girls just wanna have fun was among my choices, but I was torn. Then this album showed up, and I felt it was a sign. Aside from that, I thought it was good — fun, but just good. To be a debut album and include two anthemic songs that are still her two top rated today is pretty impressive, but it also kind of feels like a debut — theres some swinging and missing and slightly off center attempts. I’m also very much not a child of this era, so maybe I don’t have the full perspective. I did like I’ll kiss you, that’s a jam. Still probably gets good points just because the two heavy hitters are so good, but shoutout to her. I know she was a Taylor swift or Rhianna or whomever adjacent figure in her day, so a legend in her own right without a doubt.

Never cared much for Girls Just Want to Have Fun, but the musical Kinky Boots gave me an appreciation for Lauper's songwriting. Overall fun album -- I love the 80s synth / new wave influence infused with the pop sensibilities.

It was fun to hear a full record of Cyndi at the forefront of 80’s pop and with a few classic bangers as well. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time

The hits hit; the misses miss. Luckily, this album is stacked with Lauper's big hits. Kinda made me wish I was a gay guy in 1983, so I could be like, "Wow, she ended Madonna."

This one takes me back. It was released in October 1983, shortly after I moved to NYC for school, and it was (H)UGE (in New York, you don't pronounce the 'H'). When I first started thinking about this album, I thought of how this album, and Madonna's debut album (released July 1983), and then Prince's Purple Rain album (June 1984) helped -- in a small but not insignificant way -- to define the mid-80s for me, which were also my NYC years (fall 83 - spring 87). And Lauper being from NYC, I think, made her ascendance resonate with me even more. One thing that Lauper, Madonna, and Prince all shared was a strong sense of style, and so there was a way in which you heard their music through their style (or vice versa). I suspect the launching of MTV in 1981 had something to do with this. But, at least, with those 3, we got artists who weren't afraid to express their (idiosyncratic) personal styles, and sense of who they were, as artists. Anywho . . . the MUSIC, right, right. So, for me, another 'is it a 3 or is it a 4?' album — either a high 3 or a low 4. It had a number of hits, so may suffer a bit from over-exposure. On the other hand, I'm grateful (and remember, I think, being at least vaguely aware of being grateful, back then, too) that Cyndi Lauper existed, and produced this music, and (improbably? unexpectedly?) achieved great success in doing so. This album contains several cover versions of songs by others, including a Prince song, and a couple of songs by and/or with Jules Shear, but of course with Lauper's own artistic imprint. My favorite tracks are probably in the middle, tracks 4/5/6, Time After Time, She Bop, and All Through the Night. In terms of how much I like the music it's probably only a (high?) 3, but I'll nudge this up to a low 4 partly in recognition of its cultural impact (including upon me personally).

I knew "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time" from excessive radio play. They're excellent songs and I think I have even more appreciation for them in context. I didn't know who Cyndi Lauper was until now, though. Those were just songs that always existed for me, and it's cool to imagine this album coming out at the time. Because now it's so quintessentially 80's, but back then the style hadn't been defined. The past is frozen and the future has yet to spring forth. It's easy to take the past for granted, but surely this album didn't have to be made? I mean in a pre-destined sort of way. I'm getting too philosophical Because I don't love the 80's production sound, it's not a 5 for me. However I do like the use of synthesizers. It's also a very FUN record. Lauper's exuberance is the highlight. In the end I'm feeling a low four when the weaker tracks balance out the stronger half

супер фан, чомусь відчувається дуже підходящим для початку осені, back to school періоду зберегла собі і точно слухатиму ще!!!

'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' is one of the 2 or 3 songs that define the 80s, not just musically but culturally, aesthetically, even politically. It's generally era defining. It's also pretty overplayed and silly. Awesome to hear then that the album that it comes from is full of bops, full of energy, full of character, full of verve. Very very cool.

Pretty good pop album. One overplayed song, but quite a few lesser knowns that was nice to know. Favourites: Time After Time, Shebop and All Through The Night

This has got to be one of the greatest debut albums of all time spawning 4 Top 10 singles. I had the pleasure of meeting Cyndi a couple of times. Once when she had a TV performance on German TV and we had dinner afterwards around 1996? She shared her thoughts about Madonna which were quite amusing. The next morning we caught up for breakfast and shared a ride to the airport. I had this idea of producing a dance album with her (Madonna did this a couple of year later) with a German producers. She was totally onto the idea but EPIC records was not into it. Before that I saw her at a Sony UK conference where she confidently walked into a room full of records company, media and retail people and seriously talked to everyone most of which she remembered by first name! The last time I saw her was supporting Rod Stewart in Australia. She still has it. A remarkable artist! Love her!

Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Time After Time are good, but the real standout is All Through the Night. This is a pretty good album, but can feel generic to the 80s at times.

A glorious collection of pop songs delivered with style and panache. She has an enchanting voice. Sadly my favourite song of hers, True Colors, will not feature in 1001, but still a 4* album.

A great 80’s album. Distinctive voice and a couple of bangers supported by strong album songs.

8/10

Co za cudowne płyta! Bardzo spodobała mi się wokal, energia Cyndi, temat tej płyty i niektóre aranżacje. Wyśmienicie się bawiłam.

I liked it

This is probably one of the most quintesstially 80s-sounding albums out there. I can't say I loved it all, but the highs are iconic enough for me to squeek this into a 4 for me.

I know both big hits coming from this album. Well probably everyone knows them. But I never listened to the entire album before. Well I must say I was surprised how good this one is. Not a bad song on it. Well in my humble opinion of course. So: 4/5

Time after Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on the same album? We are spoiled.

This whole album is a guilty pleasure 4/5

Time Machine Pop! Wonderful 80s album. Way more depth than you’d perhaps expect if you only know Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Just the right balance of quirky and commercial. Easy 4 for me.

Natalia: Overall Rating: 6.8/10 Favourite Track: She Bop Least Favourite: All Through The Night Notes: Didn’t feel very excited at the thought of this album as the 80s is my least favourite music era. However, I was pleasantly surprised with some tracks, namely She Bop - a saucy number which I found out is about female pleasure - pretty groundbreaking for the time. I already had Time After Time locked and loaded to put as my favourite but after two listens of She Bop I was hooked! The album starts strong with some deserved nostalgic classics that I’ve heard many a time at family doos, GJWHF and TAT. The lyricism of her songs surprised me and some were more experimental than I expected. The audio clips of Betty Boop in He’s Unusual were a delightful treat and really lend themselves to Cyndi’s faux childlike persona. When You Were Mine showed me a different side to her, a more emotive and desperate way of singing which I loved - why did singers stop doing that? Overall the first five songs were nice and strong but the latter half of the album loses itself to basic nothingburger tracks. I love how she’s so happy to sound a mess, she really lives up to the album name and I absolutely love that. Cyndi explores themes of money, love, girlhood and having fun which really sets the tone for how the 80s was beginning to be defined at the start of the decade. Probably wouldn’t listen again but will take She Bop with me. Toheed - Overall Rating: 8/10 Favourite Track: When You Were Mine Least Favourite: Witness (but I wouldn’t call it bad) Notes: Omg. Didn’t know how I was gonna react to this one as I rarely listen to music from people who cannot sing. So naturally I was unfamiliar with Cyndi Lauper, but this album was fierceeeee. The first 4 songs had an amazing run on them, just a perfect opening to this album. ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun ’ and ‘Time After Time’ are two standout classics and load-bearing pillars responsible for conveying the “New Wave Synth Pop 80’s Independent Girl Boss” moment that began Cyndi’s legacy. I imagine it must have taken a village to make this album, considering it’s her solo debut, and it definitely shows to me. How they managed to take her shrill, strident voice and use it to her benefit is beyond me, but I shall always applaud hard work, and I did enjoy it in the end, too! Her cover of ‘When You Were Mine’ was so good and lowkey; it has a quality that the original lacks for me. Still prefer Prince’s version tho. Noticing now, after Otis Blue, the girls used to cover their peers’ songs for their own albums, which is so cute to me, and I wish everyone would do this more again. Unfortunately, the album lost its nerve for me after ‘Witness’ and followed up with a few middle-of-the-road songs. If I were alive at the time, I probably would’ve gagged for those songs too, but I wasn’t. All in all, it’s not particularly an album I’d listen to altogether. Or one I’d run to if I had that 80’s pop craving. But individually, some of the songs are really good and trailblazing, so I have to respect it. I’d put this on while cleaning or ironing to have in the background, or it could be a fab road trip album, but not one I'd pick and choose to listen to all that regularly. Jamie: Overall Rating: 7.8/10 Favourite Track: She Bop Least Favourite: Witness Notes: This album was really fun and camp and I enjoyed listening to it, especially ‘Girls just wanna have fun’, ‘Time after time’ and ‘She Bop’. The first half started off really strong, but it fell off towards the end for me. Cyndi Lauper created a vibrant album full of life and personality and I still enjoyed it overall. a great example of good pop music from the 80s <3 Aiyra: Overall Rating: 6/10 Favourite Track: When You Were Mine Least Favourite: He’s so unusual Notes: I’ll listen to this album when I am a girl who just wants to have fun

better

What a fun album

Альтушка поколения 80-х. Помимо двух больших хитов, что-то интересное было, пусть и не все, но до 4 дотянула

норм альбом, 2 бэнгера топовых, остальное ровно средне - 3.5

8/10 - Peak 80s Pop

Child-me had “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” as a favorite song, so my mother says. And why wouldn't I have? The song is incredibly upbeat and catchy, the video was a color riot, and I, as a child, ALSO wanted to have fun, gender be damned! To this day I think 80s Cyndi and her girl gang would have been a blast to hang with. They'd probably have thought otherwise. The title comes from an old song, but back then, Cyndi's style COULD be seen as “unusual,” which doesn't ring as true now. A woman releasing this very album in 2026, with the same style, the same vocal quirks, the same history, making a name for herself in “pro” wrestling circuits as well as on the pop charts (peep captain lou albano in the Girls video)... that's not that weird. It would arguably come across as try-hard. But at the time it felt intentional but honest. This was Cyndi, whether she was belting out her signature, earnestly pledging devotion in “Time After Time,” probably one of the best heartstring-tuggers of the era, or giving a big middle-finger up to the prudes and the patriarchy with “She-bop,” it was a statement. She never WASN'T all three of those things. And the first side definitely earns its keep. Two mega hits, plus Money Changes Everything and a passable Prince cover in When You Were Mine. That's worth a dive in the used vinyl in and of itself. You could argue that one side is plenty enough of Lauper's unique voice, bubble-pop gasps and all, but you could barely ask for a better 80s pop A-side if that's all you could handle at once. But it's not like you wouldn't try side B when you recovered. “She Bop” is, well, a bop, and “All Through the Night” follows it solidly; it occurs to me around here that there is a thru-line from this to Chvrches, albeit Cyndi mercifully doesn't cede ground to a mediocre male vocal, and there was definitely legitimate instrumentation on this. This side does have the main shortfall, though, in I'll Kiss You, a bit too strutting mod-punk for the rest of the vibe, and a waste of what Lauper can do with a tune when she has a tune to sing instead of this, but the album picks up for the ending, blending the Betty-Boop of the titular cover (and certainly a self-aware snark at herself and at the inevitable critics) and blending it through a fun, if trifling, closing piece. This was a mega hit in an “alternative” idiom and as such made major inroads for women who didn't conform to the normal standard of femininity that pop music required of its stars. It was camp as camp can be (and yet people claim that there was no such thing as queerness in their day). How much of 80s iconography exists because of She's So Unusual? Hard to say from here, but if you had to explain the decade to an alien, and didn't want it to destroy us for allowing the Reagan era to happen, this would be as good a representation as there is. Realistically this is a high three for me. 3.8ish range. Which, for purposes of the project, i'll call ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ok 80s music can be kinda fun Obviously Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is a classic that’s impossible to go a week without hearing, iconic in the best way. Time After Time is pretty solid too, definitely one of the most 80s songs of all time. Wouldn’t say there’s a ton of standouts outside those two for me but I liked the rest of this album, think she’s a good vocalist and the music itself is fun enough where you can kinda get over the relative lack of strong theming Like I said though, once you get past that initial wave of “oh these songs sound nice” there’s not a ton there. I wish there was like one more song where I thought “damn that’s good”, rather than kinda just being iffy on all the songs I wasn’t familiar with Still though, have said before I mostly listen to music for the sound rather than strong lyrics/themes, so I’ll happily take a fun (if shallow) album over one with strong themes but it sounds boring or awful. Fun music is fun music

Women

Enjoyable up beat album

7/10

N,19 Not exactly my thing but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Fun, danceable and very 80s. I rate it 3,8

The power that Girls Just Want to Have Fun has over me on a night out cannot be overstated- I could be having the worst time of my life and as soon as it starts playing I'm on the dancefloor. There are definitely some low points on the album but the highs are just so high! Favourite song: Girls Just Want to Have Fun Least: All Through The Night

If you're in any doubt about a good way to spend a Sunday morning, I'm going to tell you - it's listening to Cyndi Lauper. Going in, I only really knew Time After Time, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and (a bit) She Bop. What a bit of filth that song is by the way. I guess the best way of describing the song writing quality is that after a single listen, I felt like I'd known most of these songs for ages. It does dip fairly sharply towards the end, and becomes a tiny bit one-paced, but really, it's great pop, brilliantly sung and with a huge 80s production on it. Lovely stuff.

This was a fun listen. Lauper's singing style is idiosyncratic and won't please everyone, but I like it (in shortish bursts). The first six songs are all good to great but then the album loses a bit of steam at the end. There are no truly bad tracks here, although the sub-one-minute piece of filler "He's So Unusual" could've been left out.

Honestly pretty surprising. 80's pop is more often miss than hit for me, but this record is actually very fun. It has some big hits, but the rest are actually pretty well made. As a vocalist Cyndi works overtime. It isn't easy to belt like she does on this record. The melodies are addictively catchy. If I was a teen in the 80's this would've defitively been my jam. It is just fun pop with not a lot of depth, but that's okay sometimes. Really makes me wonder why I haven't heard of her before while other 80's idols are more well known even though they often kinda suck. 8/10

A fun 80s pop album. not particularly groundbreaking for me, but it is well sung and the songs are good.

A fun and boppy album, really capturing the 80s sound

an 80s classic

p509. 1983. 5 stars. Betty Boop discovers synths :) There was a time in the 80s when Cyndi was a serious contender for Madge's crown. She's got a better voice, had better songs and a great image. The world should have been hers. There is some filler here, but on the whole this is fine work. And it has one of the rare instances of a Prince cover that is better than the original.

Funny i like it. She bop be bopdebeebop

god that A side is so good it could keep u up at night. the B side has a lot of predictable relative weaknesses, theres not a lot of magic there in terms of the raw melodic material, but honestly its impressive that even thru that cyndi herself continues to just fill the whole room with bubbles...and honestly theres also still a lot of rly smart and surprising navigation of the toolkit of The 80s Pop Studio. but thats just ur steady baseline which those opening four tracks vault into the stratosphere, huge and distinct , often imitated never replicated. what even Is that sound that starts popping up partway through girls just wanna have fun. elemental pop music with a genuinely eccentric, specific edge to it....its not as good as a prince album but its no shock to me at all he pops up in the credits here.

This is the 80s summarised as an album.

158. She's So Unusual - Cyndi Lauper (1983) 7.30.26 Variety: 3 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 4 Emotionality: 5 = 4.4 rounded down to a 4 "If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting (I will be waiting)" Cyndi Lauper is an artist I have very fond childhood memories of. The hits from this were all over the place and still get regular radio play to this day, she provided the catchy as hell single for The Goonies movie, and she was involved ( somehow) in the rise of the WWF as a cultural phenomenon. On top of all of that, she proved to be a fun personality in interviews, and seems to be a genuinely decent human being to boot. Who doesn't love Cyndi Lauper? Well, I'm guessing probably a lot of people who probably see her stuff has VERY dated to this odd time period when synths dominated the airwaves, capitalism ran rampant and our country was being ran by greedy fascists... Wait a minute, she might be more popular than ever now. We'll see in the reviews later, but for now let's revisit some what I like to think of as some prime "comfort food" listening. THE TRACKS Side one "Money Changes Everything" - This is one I do not remember hearing as a kid. Despite being released as a single, it was low on the totem pole and failed to crack the U.S. charts apparently. It's still pretty great, though I can definitely see how it got buried by the enormity of the giant hits. It's very much closer to a traditional rocker compared to stuff that was on teh charts or about to be. For me it's in the Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart mold of tastefully incorporation of synths into rock, and compares favorably to something like Stewart's "Young Turks" or Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" style-wise. And it's always one of those "oh yeaaaah" tracks you forget is as good as it is. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" - Man, this was UNESCAPEABLE in the 80s, and had a very long shelf life existing almost as a marker of the 80s in tv and movies for decades after. It's one of the big undeniably big 80s songs for good reason though, with it's exuberant chorus, and it's joyful upbeat message, and it's essentially one long melodic hook for the entire run time. And as catchy an universally loved as it was, it still has some dark nuggets buried within the lyrics - "Oh, mother, dear, we're not the fortunate ones" and "Some boys take a beautiful girl/ And hide her away from the rest of the world/ I wanna be the one to walk in the sun". It's no wonder it became the feminist anthem it did, and I think always existed as more than just a party song. The guitar is iconic but it's that FUNKY ass syncopated ( finger picked I think?) bass line. Just wow. The textures of that and the echoey two note repeating synth, and that bubble popping synthesized marimba that comes in are the spice in this concoction. This is the Pop Music( caps for emphasis) ideal in my opinion. Effervescent, beautifully produced ear candy in a small very sellable package that can tug on the emotions juuuuuust a tiny bit and maybe even inspire some thought. It's the opposite of the "YEAH, BABY, BABY, YEAH!" mode of pop. Crunchy, and tasty, but not entirely empty carbs. "When You Were Mine" - There are plenty of Prince penned songs that are mainly associated with the artist who covered them. "Nothing Campares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor is obviously the most successful and notable of those. This one though, is my favorite. Well, second favorite - there's a cover of "I Would Die 4 You" by Mariachi El Bronx that's my personal favorite, but Cyndi Lauper's "When You Were Mine" is I think a better song, and outclasses the already great Prince original by a good measure, from the arrangement, to the extra instrumentation, to the added vocal emphasis. It becomes so much more emotional as delivered by Lauper, and she gets the hurt across much better than Prince, who mainly feels resentful. It becomes an actual love song in Lauper's hands. That echoey guitar at the end of each line, even the instrumental breakdown with the weird whistling synth line, is all pretty damned sublime. This song exists up in the clouds with equally beautiful stuff like "Space Age Love Song" by Flock of Seagulls as perfect songs that failed, for whatever reason to capture the mainstream imagination like they should have. Underrated for sure, and it might have been the true heart of this album in my opinion, if not for the next track. "Time After Time" - One of the prettiest, most emotionally affecting pure pop love ballads if the 20th century in my opinion, and the first Lauper co-penned track, which is proof she's not just a great interpreter. Everything about this works at 100%, form the pretty synthlayer underneath the verse, to the massive bass that still manages to recede into the background, to the onomatopoeic "tick, tick, tick"-ing percussion, to the backing vocals provided by co-writer Rob Hyman, of the Hooters - it all hits. And HARD. It's super sweet, and delicate, and more than a little sad in the recognition that love's not all flowers and sunshine. And it's got one of the great forgotten music videos from the era, that was probably too straightforward and plain to stay afloat amidst the giant productions from savvier artists who had bigger pocketbooks behind them. Check it out, it's earnest and corny and I love it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQY7BusJNU&list=OLAK5uy_nhtkx55x9GLPWYSS1HZsFc6UEWo-X3A3k&index=4 Side two "She Bop" - Speaking of music video budgets, it seems they spent most of it on the one for this - a pretty grand, if purposefully cheezy and fun production with a very dreamlike feel that I vaguely remember getting play MTV later in the decade when I would have been old enough to be watching ( or maybe it was relegated by that point to VH1?). Either way, it serves the barely disguised subject of the song well, and makes anything that might have been construed as more innocent as explicitly as it could have at the time. I'm very curious how anyone could have doubts about the intention, especially after seeing that video. Anyway, the song itself is maybe the most dated thing we've heard so far, very simple and maybe even playing off of the similar sounding "White Wedding" form the year before, it feels completely stuck in 1983 unlike the better tracks. That said, it's still catchy as fuck, and a lot of fun. "All Through the Night" - I think this one, as much of a minor hit as it was compared to the bigger ones, is maybe seen as "Time After Time" part 2, and it does share the same pretty, sweet take on a love song. It lacks much of the other song's inherent sadness tough I think, and ends up being a bit less bittersweet. Instrumentally it's got a lot of different stuff going on as well, including that awesome watery synth solo, than I could easily imagine landing just as well if it were an accordion ( maybe this has been done on an acoustic cover somehwere?). The same watery synth accents the end of most lines as well, and along with the great melody ( written by Jules Shear - check out his Jules and the Polar Bears albums btw as they are brimming with great melodies) makes this one disctinct, and JUST under "Time After Time" as far as emotionally affecting songs on this album go. Original by Jules Shear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lovdp792NaY Cover by Oberhofer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op2YOKrX6oQ "Witness" - One might think Lauper was maybe covering an early Police track here with it's reggae/ rock hybrid style, or at the very least taking inspiration from them instrumentally. I'm willing to bet a TON of 80s ska bands had a cover of this in their back pockets. This is most definitely a lesser effort than literally every track before it ( the frontload on this album is crazy) but it's still very catchy stuff. "I'll Kiss You" - If "All Through the Night" kinda sorta feels like "Tie After Time" part 2, then this very much feels like "She Bop" part 2, feeling even more stuck in time than that one. "When You Were Mine" shows that Lauper definitely had an interest in Prince, and this is maybe the closest thing on here to Lauper herself trying to imitate his style in pastiche form, from the scratchy funky guitar, to the infectious vocal delivery. Maybe she was hoping the Purple One would return the favor? "He's So Unusual" As fun as this is, it's barely worthy of mention in the company of the other tracks on here as it's clearly an interlude. The Betty Boop impersonation is on point though. "Yeah Yeah" - The Betty Boop-isms carry over a bit into this track as dialogue over top of the actual song. It's a bit distracting, but doesn't entirely detract from the catchy, driving rhythm of the thing. The ska touches from "Witness" are echoed here in the horns. HIGHLIGHTS - "Money Changes Everything" - "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" - "When You Were Mine" - "Time After Time" - "She Bop" - "I'll Kiss You" MIDLIGHTS - "Witness" - "Yeah Yeah" LOWLIGHTS - FINAL THOUGHTS Though there was nothing even approaching unlistenable on here, I have to admit I was disappointed in how light the side two was in comparison with the absolutely perfect side one. But even those middle of the road tracks are a lot of fun, and I doubt I would ever want to completely lose them from the experience. The strength of the best tracks on here are more than enough to carry this into a very safe 4+ territory, but I'll have to concede that it's ultimately an perfectly imperfect album. And I think side two is more or less her second album, True Colors, writ small, in that it is very enjoyable, but lacking that extra something special. The title track is an all-time classic, but everything else pales in comparison, and it's even lighter on the back end than this one. PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - If one were so inclined, they could drop those two midlights and add in The Goonies 'R' Good Enough and end on "True Colors" and you'd have Frankesteined a near-perfect album in to existence. FURTHER LISTENING - Watch Dog by Jules Shear - Beauty and the Beat by the Go-Go's - Kim Wilde by Kim Wilde - Crimes of Passion by Pat Benatar - Like a Virgin by Madonna - Heartbeat City by the Cars

Great fun and emotion and so unique! Glad to finally listen all the way through this Highlights: "When You Were Mine", "Time After Time", "All Through the Night"

8.5/10

girlypop

One of the greatest A-sides in pop history followed with a B-side that's pretty solid (with 'All Through The Night' being the main stand out). It all balances out to a pretty great pop album, unsurprisingly.

A guilty pleasure

Did you know that's Paul Reubens singing backup on "Time After Time?" He did it in thanks for Cyndi singing the theme song to "Peewee's Playhouse." Not to get all old man yells at cloud but I feel like if this record came out today it would have been a bit different. Like, some Disney subsidiary would have released it and erased all the idiosyncrasies for fear of alienating even one listener. And, yeah I know, this isn't exactly "Metal Machine Music," but you know what I mean, right? Cyndi Lauper's the real deal, and it shines through here. So kudos to her, and whoever produced this I guess too. I made that up about Paul Reubens on "Time After Time" by the way.

Great debut album. So much talent and unique style.