Maps of Music

Shine (2001)

Where the lyrics of Shine take you, and where it was really made.

The album was finished for a 2001 release, but its label folded before it came out, and the full album finally appeared only in Japan in 2004.

Key places

Recorded in New York City (2001)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The source says recording took place in Connecticut and in Lauper's hometown, New York. The point sits at the city centre, so the exact studio is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Shine: eighth studio album by American singer Cyndi Lauper
• Released exclusively in Japan in 2004
• Mostly pop songs that flirt with electronica and new wave
• Traditional instruments such as sitars and fiddles are incorporated
• Expands on the sound Lauper developed with her 1997 album Sisters of Avalon
• Songs are not lyrically linked; themes range from the Madonna–Whore Complex to celebrity life
• Produced by Cyndi Lauper

Background

• Edel Records was set to release the album in July 2001, then the date moved to 11 September 2001
• Edel folded a few weeks before the scheduled release, and Lauper regained the rights
• She turned down a small independent label and looked for a major-label deal
• After 9/11 she reworked the recordings, redoing some drum tracks and adding or removing parts
• She wrote new material that might appear on a revised Shine
• Instead of the full album, she independently released the five-track Shine EP on 16 July 2002

Recording

• Recording took place in Connecticut and in Lauper's hometown, New York
• Co-produced with her longtime collaborator William Wittman

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · pt.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper, born June 22, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American singer, songwriter and actress.
• Known for an eccentric image and a four-octave vocal range; dubbed the "Queen of Quirky Pop".
• Has sold over 50 million records worldwide.
• Debut solo album She's So Unusual (1983) produced four top-five Billboard Hot 100 hits, a first for a female debut artist, and won Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards.
• Won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kinky Boots (2013), the first woman to win the category solo.
• Received two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy, a Tony, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2015).
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2025.
• Has been a prominent LGBTQ rights advocate, founding True Colors United in 2008 to address LGBTQ youth homelessness.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The full album remained commercially unreleased until 2004
• It finally came out in Japan, the only market where the complete album was released
• Edel Records' collapse left the album without a release in 2001
• Lauper turned to an independent EP instead
• The five-track Shine EP carried four songs from the album plus a remix of the title track
• Shine Remixes (2003) followed as a second EP with a remix of the title song

Records

• Shine EP: 41,000 copies sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan (EP sales, not the album)
• Shine EP: No. 42 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart, dated 3 August 2002
• Shine EP stayed on that chart for only two weeks

Sources: www.discogs.com · en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• "It's Hard to be Me" was written about Anna Nicole Smith, who tried to buy the song as the theme for her reality show, but Lauper refused.
• In 2010 Lauper let the independent TV pilot Hard to Be Me use the track as its theme; she later used it as the theme of her own reality show, Cyndi Lauper: Still So Unusual.
• The CD edition misspells "Higher Plane" as "Higher Place".

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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