When it comes to my divas, I tend to prefer them to be made in the U.S.A. Why you may ask or maybe you don’t care, but either way I’ll tell you. Because those born outside the U.S. don’t tour here as often as I would like, making stalking them much harder. There are some exceptions to this rule, of course. Samantha Fox is from England, Fefe Dobson is from Canada, and Maria Mena is from Norway. Their talents far outweigh their geographic undesirability, as does Australian born Tina Arena.
I’ve been a fan of hers since I first heard her song “Chains” in 1994. I bought her album Don’t Ask after hearing that song and almost all her albums after that. There were a few French albums that she put out that I passed on because when it comes to music, I’m all about the lyrics, so if I can’t understand the language then I can’t relate to the song. I’m glad that her new album Eleven is in English and I’m ecstatic that it follows in the foot steps of her upbeat pop past.
Eleven is mostly about love. Sure there’s songs about the good side of love and being there for someone else, “When You’re Ready” and “Heaven”, but there’s also songs about the pain of breaking up, “I Want To Love You” and “Colours.” There’s also my favorite type of break-up song, the one where you see your ex again and show their ass how much better off you are without them, and Tina belts that story out perfectly in “Not Still In Love With You.” There’s a line in her song “Love Falls” that sums up this album best, “You bring a feather to my bed of nails.” Throughout Eleven, Tina mixes strength and weakness either through her lyrics or the music itself. She has beautifully mastered this technique on Eleven. However, when push comes to shove, I’m a sucker for a good ol’ fashioned pop song and Tina doesn’t disappoint with “Overload” and “Magic.” Eleven has it all.
Tina did a CD signing and is doing a few concerts in Australia to promote Eleven. It kills me to know that there won’t be anything like that here in the U.S. However, I’d rather miss out on those events than to miss out on hearing this piece of pop perfection. In my gay opinion, Eleven is the best thing to come out of Australia since Olivia Newton-John and koala bears.
