Remember Yesterday is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Donna Summer. Whatever mysterious time travel Donna Summer was using, it served her well.Info for I Remember Yesterday (Remastered) The beats pioneered in the album are the progenitors of today’s club scene. I Remember Yesterday isn’t some generic disco album it’s a part tongue-in-cheek, part serious survey of the musical genres surrounding the seventies. Only the synthesizer and electronic drum machine remain. The song is nearly six minutes that sound nothing like any disco heard before. They echo ÛÒ forming harmonies with themselves. Her vocals are then stretched, skewed and twisted into nearly unrecognizable tones. Donna Summer’s voice is slowly drawn out from around the echoing, space-age synths. “I Feel Love” enters with a drum machine and synth straight out of krautrock. Summer only has a single song to describe “future music” but it’s a big one. We’ve experienced the young naÌøve past, the rough present, but we haven’t even begun to look at the future. The song slowly turns into silence ÛÒ a surprising fact considering every other song has blended into the ones before and afterward ÛÒ signifying a finale.īut wait. We’ve seen the beginnings, middle and end of relationships. As the song fades out, it seems like the obvious place to end the album. Even the more traditional ballad found in “Can’t We Just Sit Down (and Talk About It)” twists around with vibrating synths in the background. “Black Lady” warns about a dangerous temptress, and “Take Me” says all you need to know in the title. While the first four songs were all about Ferris wheels, schoolyard crushes and malt shops, the second half takes a turn to the sexual. This shift is only highlighted by the songs’ contents. Even at first listen you can tell something’s changed. The midway point starts similarly to how the album began, but slightly more metallic, more synthesized. She’s all ready to come back to the pure seventies disco sound. Halfway through the album Summer signifies she’s done with her adventures in the time stream. “Back in Love Again” transforms Summer into a Motown teen queen singing over a bouncy beat, a la The Supremes. “Love’s Unkind” casts her as a 50/60s-era high-schooler pouting over a jilted love. Summer’s time shenanigans only continue through the next few songs. It’s almost as if Donna Summer knocked out Marty McFly, took the Delorean and time-traveled into the past with a seventies-era synth. There’s faded strumming of a guitar, scat singing and jazz horns. After the initial blast of horns the first tune ÛÒ the title track ÛÒ turns into something out of the forties. Listening to I Remember Yesterday for the first time is a strange experience if you go into it expecting a stereotypical disco record like I did. Their catchy, funky and fun dance numbers were filled with swagger, the grooves backed with soul. You can’t look at a compilation of dance music from the seventies without hitting one of her songs. You’re more likely to see the music style a signifier of unhipness like sitcom dads than as a reference to a legitimate powerful art form.åÊBack in the day, though, disco ruled the world of music and Donna Summer was the queen. Though its influences can still be heard springing up in pop songs like Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” and indie rock dance tunes from bands like !!! and Hot Chip, the name “disco” will always be associated with the worst of the seventies ÛÒ ugly hexagons and cheesy fringe.
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