Jane Siberry
REVIEWS
NO BORDERS HERE, (1983)
Rating: 8.5
Best Songs- I Muse Aloud
Worst Song- Extra Executives
Neal Grosvenor
In 1983 the Canadian music industry was searching for a new
female singing sensation. They sought someone who would pose a challenge for
that new American sexpot Madonna, whose provocative antics
were irking old fogies (who thought she couldn't sing and dressed like a tart...sound
familiar? Some things never change I suppose) and inspiring a whole new generation
of kids searching for new pop music. Jane Siberry was therefore
involuntarily chosen as a temporary pop queen. I distinctly remember watching
the video show "Video Hits" back in 1983, and as a 9 year old saw the video
for Siberry's "Mimi On The Beach", complete with her seductively but tastefully
frolicing on a beach. Did I really care? Well, I thought the song was catchy,
but I also thought Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" was catchy and
anyway I probably was hyper on too much soda and playing too many video games
(again, some things never change). Anyway, Siberry's career as the 80s pop
princess of the mom ent lasted oh...about 5 minutes, which is about normal,
even these days.
But those who were paying attention back then noticed something very special
about her. Sure her songs were dressed up in the fashionable 80s new wave
of the day, but her songwriting was best described as "prog-folk". I just
made this term up now, but it seems pretty fitting as Siberry did get her
start as a folk singer, and a fairly conventional one at that. But a love
for jazz and tricky time signatures quickly categorized her later songwriting
as "difficult". Direct influences were Joni, Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush,
but what most defined Siberry's songs was their attempt to fuse whimsy, intense
emotions, and weird cerebral sounds all in one package. What I also find fascinating
is her ability to inject a Brian Eno-like ambience into her songs, but I must
add that all of this was forthcoming, and No Borders Here
was a hint of the more challenging things to come. At this point she was indie
before the term "indie" was fashionable, immediately singing to the now defunct
Duke Street Records label.
"The Waitress" starts the album with a frantic beat and Siberry almost chanting
"I'd probably be famous if I wasn't such a good waitress...waitress...waitress".
I guess it would've been easy to lump Siberry in with the Joni
modern folk crowd back then, but her appeal to a younger audience caused the
older more "serious" fans to write her off as pap...we know she eventually
had the last laugh, but true artists always do I suppose. Others just heard
the album and figured she was way too weird for their tastes. "I Muse Aloud"
is a wonderful free-form type song, containing a very difficult beat that
is NOT in 4/4 time, but don't ask me what time it's in 'cause I can't count
it in my head right now. "Dancing Class" is where things start to go really
weird. This is where the prog element of Siberry's songwriting comes in, since
she doesn't have a verse/chorus/verse structure here...it's more like a constant
verse with a long instrumental interlude and voices carrying on in the back
ground until everything finally fades out. Pretty interesting stuff, at least
to my ears.
"Extra Executives" I could really do without, since it sounds like an annoying
jingle for a cereal commercial in the 80s. This song, it should be noted, was
co-written with early Siberry producer John Switzer. Possibly, this may have
been a second failed single to the first, highly successful "Mimi On The Beach",
and a possible stab at more commercial success. "You Don't Need" is a pleasant
ballad, and revealed Siberry's penchant for getting serious every now and then.
Actually, I believe all her music is serious underneath the sometimes whimsical
exterior, just as many comedians are very unhappy underneath their comical
fronts. "Symmetry" is very similar to "The Waitress" in structure and again toys
with all kinds of beat patterns and melodies. So the album version of "Mimi On
The Beach" is 7 minutes long, and not the version that was played on the radio
back then. Talk to any Canadian in their 20s or 30s and this song will
definitely spring to mind if you mention the name Jane Siberry, which is usually pretty insulting for other Siberry fans who've
followed the course of her career. "No Borders Here" was a very confident album
though, and demonstrated that more weirdness was to come from this interesting
and iconoclastic singer/songwriter.
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