Another day, another deserted pop star. Here we have Joy Winter, formerly Joy Dorris, frontwoman for legendary Canadian HiNRG/disco band Lime. Well, for their live performances anyway. Lime originator Denyse LePage continued to record the female vocals for the group, but she, along with husband and co-founder Denis, decided in the 1980's to hire the younger and prettier Joy and male singer Chris Marsh for tour duty. After many years, the two finally did record vocals for Lime's Brand New Day album, but that was the end of the road. Deciding to go solo the following year, Joy enlisted husband John Luongo, whose production and remix credits are vast, to produce the majority of the album. The production of the songs is fantastic and very of the time, with freestyle legends Lewis Martinee and Stevie B taking the reins on the best tracks. A mix of freestyle, HiNRG and pure pop, the album is a fantastic dance album. To be quite honest, Joy wasn't the world's greatest singer (sorry, Joy, if you're out there), but she makes up for it in enthusiasm. On the best track, "In Time You'll See" (one of my fave freestyle tracks of all time, BTW), Stevie B co-sings the song with her and improves it. She also gets an assist from the lovely ladies of Sequal with back-up on the Lewis Martinee tracks, including a remake of their own track, "Why Can't We Be Lovers". She even finally recorded her vocals on an old Lime song with her remake of "You're My Magician". Joy has no doubt honed her instrument over the years, and the album retains it's trashy pop pleasures thanks in large part to the great production. See for yourself...UPDATE: The fantastic Glenn Gutierrez, who co-produced and co-wrote with Stevie B. the awesome "In Time You'll See" and also Isle postee Jaya's amazing "If You Leave Me Now", left a little message in the comments here! Glenn is a freestyle god in my opinion, having also worked closely with the 'lovely' dance goddess Jocelyn Enriquez! Thanks for visiting, Glenn! Here's what he had to say:
"Hey! I was re-ripping my CD and searching to see if anyone had already scanned the artwork when I found this blog. Happy to report that I recently found Joy Dorris on Facebook (almost didn't recognize her original last name).
http://www.facebook.com/joyfromlime
Thanks for the kind comments on the album. I co-produced and wrote the music for "In Time You'll See", while Stevie wrote the lyrics. I'm still producing dance/pop out here in California.
http://www.facebook.com/glenngmusic"
Download Frantic Romantic
| 1 | In Time You'll See | |
| 2 | How Can I Be Sure | |
| 3 | Day And Night | |
| 4 | Why Can't We Be Lovers | |
| 5 | Declaration Of My Independence | |
| 6 | You're My Magician | |
| 7 | Trapped In The Shadows | |
| 8 | Cry Just A Little Bit | |
| 9 | He Said / She Said |
