Cyndi Lauper: At Last : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The great curse of Cyndi Lauper's Eighties breakthrough was that her excellent voice was always overshadowed by her highly eccentric fashion sense. This all-covers album spotlights Lauper the lounge chanteuse, alternately dignified and bombastic. Ironically, what's missing in certain places on At Last is Lauper the extrovert: "If You Go Away" is decidedly stately, and "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is trim and prim, but her version of Etta James' "At Last" is a true revelation. On Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," she's a pitch-perfect combination of anguish and poise, and on Aretha Franklin's "Until You Come Back to Me," she delivers a smoky rendition that isn't too shy to flirt with the original.