Bring Ya to the Brink (Deluxe Version)

iTunes Review

Eleven years since her last album of original studio material, Cyndi Lauper’s 2008 release Bring Ya To the Brink shifts to the dancefloor. Her voice has always been a natural force, able to stretch elastically over notes, and her team-ups here with outside producers and writers use that talent wisely. “Same Ol’ Story” is pure soul diva. “Lay Me Down,” produced with Kleerup who’s most notably worked with Swedish pop star Robyn, charges at seductive strength, as does a worthy collaboration with the London electro-pop group Dragonette for “Grab A Hold.” Remix expert Scumfrog co-wrote the club-strutting opener “High and Mighty,” and Lauper sells herself as a partying extrovert for the Euro-disco grooves of “Into the Nightlife” (that receives an extra commercial push from noted song doctor Max Martin who’s worked similar wonders for Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson). But while Lauper can indulge and experiment with the best of them, she sounds most comfortable in the familiar surroundings of the album’s closer “Rain On Me,” where she recalls the winsome longing of her classic “Time After Time” and the long-gone era it represents.