Okay, since i'm so excited about almost all of Shakespears Sister's albums getting rereleased, many with deluxe editions, i decided i'd try to list my Top Ten Favorite Shakespears Sister tracks...and this is the first time i ever tried to do a top ten songs list for one of my fave bands as i always knew narrowing down such a list would be ultra-hard, especially because typically with my fave artists, the songs i love most tend to rotate and fluctuate...but hard as it was, i stuck with it and came up with the following:
Top Ten Shakespears Sister Tracks:
10. Remember My Name
9. Catwoman
8. The Trouble with Andre
7. Dirty Mind (album version!)
6. The Older Sister
5. Here Comes the Weather
4. She's Lost Control (Joy Division cover)
3. Opportunity Knockers
2. I Don't Care (single version!)
1. You Can't Wear Shades
Now this gave me the idea to try something else i always had in the back of mind to attempt: a Top Ten list of the best Sophie Muller-directed music videos. Even though many people just use them as a disposable marketing tool, i've always loved the idea of the music video as an art form when they're done well by people who approach them as such (i totally geeked out with glee back when MTV started including the Director's credits in their video titles) and Muller has always been my favorite video director. Since she not only directed most of Shakespears Sister's videos but also co-wrote much of SS's "MGA Sessions" album, doing the above list jogged my interest at trying to narrow down her best videos...and this was even HARDER to do than the fave songs list just because of the sheer volume of videos under her belt. I also tried to not include more than one video by the same artist on the list but finally had to make an exception for Eurythmics because there was no way i could not include either of the two videos that i did. What i love about Sophie is not only is she great at helping artists interpret their work visually, but she has a gift for picking up on the emotions of a song and exploding it - usually right down to a beat by beat level...so ultimately keeping that in mind is what enabled me to narrow down and rank the final choices in terms of the videos that served as the best examples of such.
Top Ten Sophie Muller Videos:
10. Bjork - Venus as a Boy
9. Amy Studt - Just a Little Girl
8. Ke - Strange World
7. Eurythmics - Beethoven (I Love to Listen to)
6. Vegas - Possessed
5. Annie Lennox - Little Bird
4. No Doubt - Don't Speak
3. Eurythmics - Don't Ask Me Why
2. Shakespears Sister - Stay
1. Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice