Kismet

Language available : english

At 64, Belinda Carlisle makes an excellent case for why pop music should be ageless. Unlike other older voices that show the wear and tear of time, there are no signs of time here. In terms of style and decades, she may be a long way from her West Coast punk pioneer days (starting with her nom de guerre Dottie Danger as drummer for the Germs), but age has not mellowed her. And while Kismet has a heavy sheen of production, so did her '80s solo work; it's all appealing. Besides, who ever heard of an under-produced Diane Warren song? The "I Get Weak" (and "Blame It On the Rain" and "Rhythm of the Night" and "Un-Break My Heart," etc. etc.) songwriter penned all five tracks on Carlisle's comeback EP, her first new music in more than a quarter-century, not counting recordings of French chansons and Buddhist chants. If you like Carlisle classics like "Heaven Is a Place On Earth" and "Mad About You," then you'll find "Big Big Love" pretty excellent—high energy, joyous, '80s inflected, and packed to the gills with synth. "If U Go" also sounds like it could be from an old Carlisle album. Big, glistening, and free, it's the kind of pop that hasn't really been in fashion since Kelly Clarkson first sang "Since U Been Gone." "Deeper Into You" is a power ballad a la "I Get Weak," while "I Couldn't Do That to Me" finds Warren at her absolute schmaltziest. Unabashedly cramming in a marching band beat and swooning harmonies, it sounds straight off the soundtrack of a 1980s Tom Cruise movie. Carlisle pulls it off with aplomb, trying on Gaga-style high drama and showing a richness she lacked in her younger years. (It should be pointed out that Charlotte Caffey—the Go-Go's bassist and songwriter behind such classics as "We Got the Beat," "Vacation," and "Head Over Heels"—provides stellar backing vocals here, at age 69.) Finally, Warren and Carlisle go all in on "Sanity," a majestic sweep of strings and rolling drums one can easily imagine Marina or Bebe Rexha recording. Carlisle seems to absolutely delight in the giddily arch lyrics: "Sanity, oh sanity, why did you abandon me? ... Never thought you'd slip away/ When I needed you the most/ Never thought I'd see the day/ When you disappeared like a ghost." But Carlisle herself doesn't seem to be going anywhere. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz