We know many of you come into town just for Northalsted Market Days, and you’re right to. Pride gets all the glory, but we all know Market Days is way more fun and a fuller weekend. So congrats on that decision! Usually we at Nightspots like to put together a succinct guide to whom to see at the festival, hour by hour, but this year, outside of a few notable exceptions (Country cutie Steve Grand, twink favorites Neon Trees and Karmin, and America’s Got Talent alum Branden James with our very own Voxbox), you should pour all of your love and energy into seeing Market Days’ big coup: The pop icon that is Belinda Carlisle.
For most of us of a certain, uh, age, she’s the soundtrack to our coming out and coming up, but there might be a whole swath of you who need some filling in. So this, young gay tourist, is your guide to the best Belinda.
1. Start with the obvious Go-Gos “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation” and “We’ve Got the Beat” are nuggets so widely loved, even your grandma knows them, so skip ahead to their third album for two of their catchiest tracks, “Turn To You” and the genius “Head Over Heels.” Now Belinda and Charlotte might have been battling HUGE demons during the recording but you’d never know it. This album is still probably the best of the three and those two songs are the best examples of why they define power pop. Further listening: “Cool Jerk” and “Has the Whole World Lost Its Head.”
2. Then go to “early solo” Many will point to her debut, Belinda, as a highlight with the huge hit “Mad About You,” but overall, not my favorite. Skip forward to Heaven On Earth, with its iconic title track and its two even better follow up singles, “I Get Weak” and “Circle In The Sand.” The album takes on a more mature sound, similar to Cher’s comeback album, and while parts sound “of the time”, most tracks hold up very well after a quarter of a century.
3. Explore Mid-Belinda In my mind, the best for fans, this ’90s era gave us the amazing Runaway Horses. Just get the whole thing. “Leave a Light On,” “La Luna,” “Visions of You,” “We Want The Same Thing,” and “Summer Rain” are all pop gems not to be missed. Live Your Life Be Free followed with a few gems, like the title track and “Do You Feel Like I Feel?”, but her best was the next release, Real. Getting some of her original zest back, Real sounded like the old Go-Gos Belinda, mostly due to the fact that her and Charlotte Caffey stripped her sound of the slickness and just gave us great guitar pop again. It’s the BC CD for the Go-Gos fans.
4. The 2000s found her kicking back a bit, cleaning up her act (see her scandalous autobiography for that!) and working on the Go-Gos again. Her next solo album was the fully French Voila, a love letter to her new home. Not what you were expecting from her but her voice lends itself very well to the chansons. In the past year or so we’ve seen two new greatest hits collections and two brand new songs, the very danceable and catchy “Sun” and the power ballad “Goodbye Just Go,” both shining gems she’ll hopefully work into her best of the best!
Come “Dance With Somebody” with DJ Moose at his Pre-Market Days Whitney Houston birthday party at Mary’s Attic, Fri., Aug. 8 at 9 pm.